


The Robot King

by betheflame



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Arranged Marriage, BAMF Pepper Potts, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard is an abusive asshole, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, Minor Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov, Shakespeare and Disney Combined to Make This Fic, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2020-05-30 22:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19412482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Howard Stark has been a narcissistic control freak for a long time, so no one should really be surprised he added his son’s betrothal to a business merger, even when said son is 4 at the time.Pepper and Tony are soulmates and all is looking peachy, until a tragic car accident, a well-placed lie, and years of emotional abuse conspire to force them apart.Can they make it back to each other? And despite Howard’s indifference, find true love?+++++++++++++(Of course they can. I only write happily ever afters.)Basically, this isLion King, which means it'sHamlet, because evidently I only write AUs now.





	1. Chapter 1

“Please don’t make me do this,” Laura said to her editor. “Please.”

Joe rolled his eyes. “You are our only girl. You think I’m sending one of the boys to cover a birth?”

“You could send no one to cover a birth,” Laura muttered. She’d been working at _The Daily Bugle_ for six months, been paid for maybe two of them, and was pretty anxious to remind the mouth breathers she worked with that women could write stories and have boobs at the same time. Covering the Stark heir was not going to really help that cause. 

“I was the editor of the paper for three years at Princeton, you know. I have two student journalism awards and I know what the fuck I’m doing,” Laura growled. 

“Then go know what the fuck you’re doing at New York Pres and tell us all about the little fucker who is now the richest human in America,” Joe said, his patience clearly out. “This kid is functionally royalty, so I want details and I want art.” He reached into his drawer and handed her a camera. “Get me both and I’ll make sure you get paid.”

Laura grumbled, grabbed the camera, and headed for the door. “Fine but I’m taking a taxi. I’m not fucking with the subway with this thing.”

“Fine,” Joe called after her. “Just get me a picture of the little fucker.”

Laura waved her hand over her head as she retreated. He wants a story about American royalty, I’ll give him a fucking story.

_________________________________

**Prince Anthony Arrives in Manhattan**  
Laura DeAngelis, _The Daily Bugle_  
October 5, 1983

Howard Stark first cemented himself in the American imagination thirty years ago when he told us that he could make cars fly. In post-war America, this represented the apex of possibility, and the dazzling attractive man in his early twenties was exactly who we needed to sell that vision. When he married Italian heiress Maria Carbonell ten years ago, it was covered with breathless anticipation around the world. 1973 was a hard year on this planet, and the Starks captured all of our imaginations. 

And now, now they’ve given us another piece of American Camelot – an heir. Anthony Edward Stark was born on October 3, 1983 at 4:54 am. New York Presbyterian Hospital’s press release tells us he was 19”, 7lbs 8oz, and perfectly healthy. This reporter got a glimpse of the child himself at the press call yesterday and I can confirm he is… well, perfect.

What they didn’t tell us is what we all really want to know: who is he going to be? Will he have the charm of his father or the grace of his mother? Will the trademark Stark dimple show quickly? Will he be the technological genius Howard is or will he be something new? 

America is desperate for royalty and the Starks have delivered so far. Will our charming prince continue the tradition?

_________________________________

**October 1987**

“Maria, I’m telling you, this is the best way to make sure everything works.”

“Howard, Anthony is four years old. Betrothals are from the old country, why do you want to bring them here?”

Howard looked at his wife, exasperated. “Tony is a four-year-old nightmare and we need Potts & Stane to ensure the metallurgy supply line. You clearly aren’t able to give me any other options.”

She internally cringed at his cruelty over her fertility problems, but she had learned many years ago to never let him see her cry. “Virginia is only two, Howard,” Maria bit out. “Can we not give them a chance to actually meet each other when they are, I don’t know, old enough to communicate?”

Howard waved her off. “You don’t understand, Maria, just let me handle it. Go back to your teas and lunches and I’ll take care of our future.”

He folded his newspaper, gave her his perfunctory kiss, and left the dining room. She took a deep breath and sipped her coffee, which was terrible as was most food and drink in this country. As she frequently did, she thought back to the first time she ever laid eyes on Howard Stark. 

_“Figlia,” her father gestured. “This is Howard and he’s going to be your date tonight.”_

_They had been in Manhattan for three weeks and she knew she wasn’t ever going to see Italy as a single woman again. Her father had made it clear that he needed connections to the American government and the quickest way for him to do that was to marry her to a prominent American with connections to the government. It appeared this man who made weapons was to be her groom. She was not stupid enough to protest. At least he was handsome._

_“Che bella donna, solo fortunato,” Howard responded as he kissed her hand. She was charmed despite herself as he winked._

_“Sono il fortunato con una bella scorto,” Maria replied, praying quickly that wasn’t the only Italian he knew. Flattering her was easy, conversing would be more challenging._

_Howard smiled and offered his arm to escort her to whatever party they were heading into. When they were out of earshot of her father, he whispered, “Let’s just have fun tonight. If you can still stand me at the end of this, I’ll pay what your father wants and we’ll get you away from him.”_

_Maria was slightly shocked at the frank talk, but she had heard American men were like that. She wasn’t exactly desperate to get away from her father, but she wasn’t eager to stay with him either._

_Their evening was… well, she had actually had fun. Howard was brilliant and funny and he clearly was taken with her. Their kiss at the end of the night had been filled with promise and hope and she hadn’t been the least bit afraid when he produced a gorgeous ring only three weeks later._

Maria wiped her eye quickly. It wasn’t until her third miscarriage that she found out that Howard had married her for a large injection of capital from her father. Stark Industries had needed a cash influx and her father had wanted rid of her. For the two men, it was the perfect arrangement. It’s just that no one told Maria. 

“Mama?” 

Her heart calmed. “Yes, my precious Anthony?”

“Mama, I made it work.”

Maria’s heart skipped a beat, both in pride and fear. _If Anthony had made the robot work, then Howard would be furious_. “Did you, sweetling?” 

Tony beamed with pride. “He tied Jarvis’ shoes!”

Two months previous, Howard had brought home a prototype of a robotic arm that someone at SI had been trying to make work to no avail. Howard told Tony he could play with it – it still could move, it just couldn’t move independently, and Tony had immediately started messing around with the motherboard. Within three minutes, Tony made something happen that, from Howard’s face, he shouldn’t have been able to and Maria hadn’t been able to move fast enough to get in between Tony’s face and Howard’s hand. 

_If Anthony showed Howard a fully functioning… Maybe linking Anthony and Virginia will protect him. If that’s so, it’s worth it. So very worth it._

Later that night, Maria walked purposefully into Howard’s study and laid out her conditions. “Virginia has no mother since Angela died, so I will be a mother’s voice for them both. If you insist on this course of action, I have two conditions for my cooperation.”

Howard quirked an eyebrow, surprised that his frequently docile wife chose something as inconsequential as marriage to grow a spine over. “I’m listening.”

“One, they will attend school together. If you are sending Anthony to that place in New Hampshire, then Virginia is going, too. If you are bonding them for life it starts now.”

“Okay,” Howard agreed. 

“And I will be the one to tell them about the betrothal,” Maria said, praying he couldn’t hear the quaver in her voice. “You will make it about business and Anthony will rebel and accidentally hurt Virginia and we cannot risk that. Let me tell them.”

Howard looked her with the calculating glare that normally made her blood run cold. Be brave, Maria. This is for your children. This is not for him. 

“Agreed,” Howard said. “Saves me the trouble anyway.”

Maria nodded decisively and internally reveled in her victory. She might not have much power in this odd world she lived in, but what power she had she wielded wisely.

_________________________________

From the Press Office of Stark Industries  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
November 22, 1987

Stark Industries is pleased to announce a landmark merger between itself and Potts & Stane Mining. PSM agrees to exclusively supply SI with their proprietary metallurgic alloys while remaining an independent subsidiary. 

“This is a new frontier for Stark Industries,” President and Owner Howard Stark said in a statement. “We are thrilled to bring the Potts & Stane family into ours and are excited to see what bright future this will create for the American people.”

“Potts & Stane has been a family business for two generations and we are thrilled that with the advent of this deal, it will continue to be so,” Potts & Stane CEO Obadiah Stane concurred. “With my brother-in-law stepping down as our President, the time could not be better for our companies to join forces.”

_________________________________

**June 1995**

“PEPPER!” Tony yelled from the top of the stairs. “WHERE ARE YOU?”

“I’m right here, Tony,” Pepper replied calmly, in all the wisdom of a nine-year-old, and held out a wet wipe. “Stop yelling and take this.”

“Oh,” he grinned and stumbled into her room, where Pepper was sitting on her bed, reading a book. In reality, Tony enthusiastically stumbling about with WD-40 slicked through his hair, and Pepper calmly reading a book while also able to produce a baby wipe for Tony to wipe his hands on was really the summary of their friendship.

“Pep, you have got to come now,” Tony said after he proved to her that his hands were clean. “Rhodey finished the jump and it is so cool and you just have to see it.”

Pepper grinned. “Can he do that thing with the balancing?”

“Pep, it’s like he can _fly_ ,” Tony breathed and held out his hand as Pepper scrambled off her bed and the pair ran into the Stark Mansion’s expansive back yard. 

Since the first time Tony had met the unwieldy-named Virginia Ann Potts, they had been inseparable. The girl’s calm focus was the perfect foil for Tony’s spastic energy and their families did everything they could to encourage the bond. 

_“Anthony, this is Virginia,” Maria had said, introducing her five-year-old son to his future wife._

_He stuck out his hand like a polite champion. “I’m Tony.”_

_“I’m Virginia, but my dad calls me Pepper because my hair is so red,” replied the three-year-old plainly._

_Tony blinked twice. “Can I call you Pepper? That’s more fun than a state.”_

_She nodded. “Okay.”_

_Tony grinned. “Want to see my robots?”_

_Her eyes got wide. “Like Max?”_

_“How do you know about Max? You’re a girl!”_

_She scowled and pinched him. “What was that for?”_

_“For being dumb,” Pepper replied as Maria hid her laughter behind her hand. “Don’t be dumb.”_

_Tony, who had never been reprimanded so plainly and yet so calmly, just blinked and nodded. “I’m not, so okay. Robots?”_

If someone had asked Pepper in the summer of 1995 what she felt about Tony, she would have said he was her best friend, and then shrugged her shoulders and added 'but better'. There were a few girls in her grade that she liked, and she had other friends, but Mama Maria had asked her to keep an eye on their boy and Pepper took responsibility very seriously. Tony was hers… because even then, she knew he was no one else’s. 

Besides, Tony needed looking after. There weren’t that many boarders at Westcove Academy in the elementary years – Tony, Rhodey, her, a girl named Carol, a few others she didn’t know well. All were children of very important people and each had school staff members directly responsible for them. Pepper and Tony shared one – a completely unflappable man named Phil, who took all of Tony’s antics in stride. 

The 1994-95 school year had been a big one for Tony. He’d started it in 3rd grade and ended it in 7th, landing him in a class with another boy who knew something about being an outsider. The only non-white student at Westcove, James Rhodes – or Rhodey as Tony had quickly christened him – had, he would say later, known he was meant to be Tony’s friend the first time Tony calmly corrected the teacher about a math problem. 

For the past week Rhodey had been with them at the Mansion, Tony and Rhodey had built a skateboarding ramp and Pepper had supervised, coordinating with the Stark’s staff for any necessary equipment. She was confident the boys were going to break a thousand bones and she’d be there to make sure they weren’t complete idiots about and only their normal level of idiot. 

“Ms. Potts,” Pepper heard a voice behind her a few hours later, while Tony and Rhodey were busy making the ramp go even higher and at angles she wasn’t sure were anywhere near a good idea. She turned to see the Stark’s butler, Edwin Jarvis, smiling down at her. 

“Jarvis, they’re being idiots, but I don’t see any blood.”

“Very good, Ms. Potts,” Jarvis smiled. “I’m here to let you know that Mrs. Stark has just been informed that Mr. Stark will be returning for dinner this evening. I trust you will help Master Anthony prepare?”

She took a deep breath. “Do you know if he’s… I mean, has the driver said… Is he…”

“No, Ms. Potts, I do not believe Mr. Stark is in a good mood, so I believe our Anthony will need you to explain to Master James the protocols for the evening.”

She nodded resolutely, like a solider heading to battle. “Jarvis, you can count on me.”

The older man bit his lip to keep from smiling. “I always do, Ms. Potts.” She grinned at him, a blinding one full of energy and joy, as she made her way over to the young men. Jarvis had silver to polish, but he lingered ever so slightly to see how Ms. Potts would handle this. 

“Tony, we’re on Grumpy Old Man protocols tonight,” Pepper called as Jarvis continued to hide his smile. 

Tony groaned. “Rhodey, buddy, you may want to get the flu.”

“What?”

“When my dad is having a bad day, we’re all having a bad day and his favorite foods are gross, so we’re not eating either. Pep, do you have some dazzling story to distract him with?”

She nodded. “I’ve been keeping a notebook and I’m assuming that he won’t know our grades just like every other year, so we can talk about those.”

“Just not my math or science ones,” Tony said quickly. 

She smiled gently. “I know, Tony. Just the ones you’re only _kind of_ brilliant in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: We learn more about how Pepper helps Tony survive his life and I get to make a Delia's catalogue reference.
> 
> Max the Robot is from _Flight of the Navigator_ , a truly epic Disney Channel Original Movie from the 1980s that I hold dear in my heart, even though I am a girl. :-D


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW/CW: Child Abuse
> 
> (I don't show the act on the page, but the effects are there. Skip the middle section if you need to.)

**July 1996**

“Jarvis, you are overreacting,” Tony rolled his eyes at the other man. “Ana, tell him he’s overreacting.”

“I think I agree with him, my Tony,” Ana said, her accent thickening on Tony’s name. 

Tony rolled his eyes. “Obie is fine, he’s fine! It’s Howard you have to watch out for. Now, where were these muffins Pepper sent me for?”

Ana handed him a wrapped parcel of cranberry orange muffins with strict instructions to not eat all of them before he reached Pepper’s room. That earned Ana her favorite Tony grin and a kiss on her check before the boy scrambled out of the room. 

This fight had been happening more and more over the past few visits Tony made home from Westcove. Tony was 12 and 3/4, he kept reminding them, and that was basically a teenager, which was basically an adult, which both _actual_ adults knew was a load of bullshit. 

However, both adults also knew that the life Tony was being forced to lead would have killed them long ago, and the best answer they had was to love him. 

“I do not trust that man, Edwin,” Ana said as she went back to scrubbing the counter. “Neither of them are his children and he loves money so much, I do not trust him.”

“Neither do I,” Jarvis sighed deeply. “And I think our Pepper is smart enough to be wary as well, but Tony…”

“All of Tony’s brilliance is wrapped up in wires,” Ana smiled sadly. “He is a nincompoop when it comes to humans.”

Jarvis chuckled. “Which is why we are here, my love. I believe that with everything. You and me, and Pepper… we’ll keep him as safe as we can, and we’ll remind him that he’s loved. They get married on her 18th birthday and then she will build him a life that he deserves – we only have a bit longer to go.”

“Do you know when Maria will finally tell them?”

“How often is Maria coherent these days?”

“What if I just let something slip-“

“No, Ana.” Jarvis was firm. “No. We do not know how that would anger Howard, and we cannot risk it. No.”

She scowled at her husband but nodded. “Now, who from Pittsburgh is coming in for Pepper’s birthday? The Rhodes’ already said yes, as did Mr. Coulson and his husband, who we have to call friend since Howard is so unreasonable, and then the Maria girl and someone named Carol that Tony tells me Rhodey is quite smitten with.”

There was silence, so she turned to her husband to see him quite white in the face. 

“Jarvis?”

“I just thought of something quite upsetting.”

“Oh?”

“Do we know if Westcove has a health education program?”

Ana blinked a few times before her face went white as well. “I’ll talk to Maria and ask how she wants it handled the next time she is awake.”

“If Tony… with someone besides Pepper…”

“He’s a very charming boy, Edwin.”

“And his charm will be the death of us all, I believe,” Jarvis smiled. “And also, possibly, the savior of us all. It will all depend on how he chooses to use it.”

_________________________________

“Pepper, dear,” Maria was shaking the girl awake. “Pepper, I need you to come with me.”

“What time is it?” Pepper groggily rubbed her eyes. 

“It’s 1:30, so we need to be quiet.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just to Tony’s room, but be quiet,” Maria whispered as she led the girl down the hall. 

When the door creaked open, she heard Maria tell Jarvis that they would take it from here. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light and her hand flew up to her mouth. “Is that blood?”

Maria nodded. “We need to clean him up before the doctor gets here.”

On the bed, Tony was laying on his side, with his arm at a particularly awkward angle. His face was bruised and his shirt was torn nearly off his body. At the sound of Pepper’s voice, he turned his head slight. “Hey Pep, you should see the other guy.”

Swallowing quickly, she responded. “Was the other guy your dad?”

“Howard and I had a disagreement on how I would be spending this summer vacation.”

“And he proved his point with his fists?” Pepper blinked back tears. _Now is not the time_ , she scolded herself. She had learned that lesson a few years ago. 

_“TONY! Why do you look like that?!” Pepper walked into their small communal kitchen at Westcove to see Tony, sitting shirtless, as he was wrapping his own ribs. “Where is Phil? Why aren’t you in a hospital?”_

_“Dad came to visit yesterday,” Tony responded, wincing. “He had some feelings to get out.”_

_“On your body?!” She was nearly shrieking and couldn’t stop the tears._

_His eyes whipped to hers. “Virginia, no. No tears. This is no big deal, happens all the time. No need to let anyone else know, everything will heal. Mom taught me how to deal with this.”_

_“But –“_

_“Pep, no tears. It’s my fault. I made him mad. I’m not worth a fuss,” he said with a resolution that broke Pepper’s heart in half and made her so confused she could barely breathe._

_She nodded quickly. “How can I help?”_

_He looked her dead in the eyes and finally replied. “I can’t see my back. Can you put the iodine on the cuts?”_

__Cuts? _She thought to herself as she rounded Tony’s body and noticed several belt-shaped lashes and had to choke back her vomit._

Since that day, she’d learned quite a lot about the Stark family, all the bits Tony had been keeping her. She learned that Howard _hated_ Tony and the feeling was growing to be mutual. She learned that Maria couldn’t leave Howard, because he had never let her get U.S. citizenship. Her ability to live in the country was tied to her marriage through her green card and he had made it clear that if she ever talked to anyone, ever reported him, he’d take Tony from her. So, Maria had simply enrolled in basic first aid courses and sworn Jarvis and Ana to secrecy. 

Pepper had learned that Maria took an increasing amount of anxiety medication and was spending more and more time in bed. She called them ‘migraines’ a lot, but Pepper and Tony knew better. Her life was slowly killing her. 

By the time Pepper turned 10, she rarely bothered to go out to Pittsburgh to her father’s house on breaks. Her mother had died in childbirth and before she was sent to the Stark’s and then Westcove, Pepper had been raised by a series of nannies and other staff members. Everyone was perfectly pleasant and she remembered cordial dinners each evening with her father and her uncle Obie, but her first true happy memories came when she was delivered to the Stark Mansion the summer she turned 4. 

When she’d told Carol how young she had been when she left home, Carol was horrified, but it wasn’t like the Pittsburgh house was anything special. In New York, she had Jarvis, and Ana, and sometimes Mama Maria, and always, _always_ Tony. Why in God’s name would she want to go back to where she just had the T.V., a pile of books, and a house where she only spoke when spoken to?

“Why is the doctor coming this time?” Pepper asked Maria quietly. 

Maria gestured to a bruise on Tony’s back. “That’s too near his kidney. I want someone to make sure he’s not bleeding internally.”

Pepper tucked that piece of information away. She’d consult the encyclopedias in the library later about kidneys and internal bleeding. For now, though, she focused on keeping Tony calm as Maria and Ana washed the cuts and bound his ribs. 

“Tony,” Pepper scooted to where she was in his eyesight. “I know I told you that chicks dig scars, but this is getting ridiculous.”

Tony grinned. “This doesn’t impress you, Potts? You’d still rather have that ghost kid?”

“His name is Devon Sawa and he _danced with her_ , Tony. We’ve been over this. Dancing is very romantic.”

“I still say _Home Alone_ is better.”

“I’m totally surprised that the movie where the kid invented a thousand ways to get back at evil guys is your favorite movie,” Pepper said sarcastically. 

“Sass will get you nowhere, Ms. Potts,” Tony grimaced as Ana hit a particularly painful wound. 

Without thinking, Pepper reached out to cup Tony’s face, noticing it had no wounds on it at all. _Nowhere that would show_. “Breathe with me, Anthony.”

Their banter forgotten in his temporary pain, his eyes never left hers as they breathed together. His wide, coffee-colored orbs held more than she knew how to process at that moment, so she just held on and helped him breathe.

_________________________________

“And if I just… right, this wire is… okay, but… there!” Tony sat back on his heels triumphantly.

It was two days before Pepper’s birthday and he was finally finished with her gift. He’d overheard her complaining to Maria that she couldn’t get her hair as flat as she wanted it to do some sort of clip thing – he stopped listening at that point – but flat hair he could help her with. He’d used to help her brush it when they were little, but she’d stopped asking, not that he was sure why, but he could help her now, he was sure. 

After bribing one of the girls in the 8th grade building to get him a few copies of _Seventeen Magazine_ and the Delia’s catalogue, he’d figured out what he thought she wanted and started wiring up a robot straightener to help. After several failed attempts, he’d finally made the fully articulated arm work on command. 

He’d made his first functional robot at 8, named it Max, and made the mistake of leaving him home once when they’d gone back to school. Tony had returned on the next break to find Max in pieces, with one of Howard’s tools placed strategically on top as a message. 

He’d never left a robot home again. 

Tony ran over to the place he’d been hiding the wig – that had been a fun conversation with Jarvis – and ran three final tests. He double checked the picture from the catalogue he’d torn out and then gathered up the new invention and made his way to Pepper’s room. 

“PEEEEEPPPPPPP,” he bellowed as he scampered. “PEP I HAVE YOUR PRESENT AND IT IS AWESOME.”

“INSIDE VOICES, ANTHONY,” she chastised. 

“NOT IF YOU AREN’T,” he called back and he could feel her eye roll from the bottom of the stairs. 

“What is that?” she said as he entered. 

“This is your birthday present. I’ve named it V.I.C.I.-“

“-like in _Small Wonder_?”

He nodded. “But you can rename her. She can do this,” he produced the photo. 

“She can straighten my hair?”

Tony nodded. “You were telling Maria that you wished you could have someone do it for you every morning since it took so long and I figured that couldn’t be that hard to arrange so I built V.I.C.I. and then you mentioned the clip things that everyone is doing, so she has an optional attachment here to put the clips in and-“

He was silenced as Pepper launched herself into his arms for a hug. “Anthony Edward, you never cease to amaze me,” she whispered as she held him tighter. “You are… thank you.”

He rested in the hug – he rarely felt as safe or as happy as he did when Pepper was hugging him – and thanked all the science gods he could name quickly that this kind of shit came easy to him. 

“It’s nothing, Pep,” Tony whispered. “Only a few bolts and some coding.”

She pulled back and he noticed tears in her eyes. “No, that is Howard talking and no. This is everything. You heard me say something that would make me happy and you made it happen and you are just a genius, Tony, and I love you so much for a thousand reasons, but this is one. Thank you.”

“Love you, too, Pep,” he grinned as she kissed his cheek and settled back into the hug. All the kids that had made fun of him for having Pep as his best friend had no idea what magic it felt like when she told him she loved him. When Pep believed in him, he could do anything. 

He just had to make sure he never fucked it up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Small Wonder_ was a TV show in the 1980s, featuring a girl robot named V.I.C.I. and the YouTube clips are a damn delight.


	3. Chapter 3

**August 1999**

“Do you have everything?” Pepper worried her lip as Tony threw the last bits of clothing into a bag. 

“I think so, yeah, and you’re coming up for Labor Day anyway, right?”

Pepper nodded. “Jarvis and Ana said they’d bring me with them.”

Tony nodded definitively and shoved his hands in his pockets, as though they wanted to do something else and he had to control them. Pepper fiddled with the hem of her shirt for the same reason. 

After months of debate that ended what seemed like years of fighting, Tony was off to MIT to study chemical engineering. 

Which everyone who loved him knew he did not want to do. 

And which Howard demanded he do.

_“Why do you think I pushed you so hard, boy?” Howard said as he and Tony looked at the full Stark Industries organizational chart, including all of its subsidiaries. “All of this, and whatever else I do between now and when I die, will be yours. Just go to MIT like a good boy, get your degree in chemical engineering, stop messing around with your silly bots and come home. We have weapons to build. I have enough robotics engineers, we need a chemical one.”_

_“Dad, I’m not as good at chem as I am at robotics,” Tony protested._

_“You’ll learn. You’ll learn because this is what SI needs and Stark men are what?”_

_“Made of iron,” Tony mumbled. “We don’t bend when things are hard, hard bends to us.”_

_“That is right. So you will graduate top of your class in chemical engineering – and we could also use good PR, so you will keep your head down and then you will come home.”_

Finally, Pepper’s resolve broke and she flung her arms around Tony. “I’m going to miss you,” she confessed in a hushed tone. 

“Oh, Pep,” he whispered back, her name reverent on his lips. “I wish I didn’t have to do this without you.”

“It’s only one year until Rhodey gets there, right?” her voice still at a whisper and her arms still wrapped around him. 

He nodded into her shoulder and that’s when she noticed that his face felt damp on her shoulder. 

“Well, then it’s just one year. We’re only a few hours apart and now that you gave me email we can talk all of the time, right? And I’ll come whenever I can get away from school, and we’ll make it, Tony, we’ll figure it out.”

“You promise,” Tony’s voice was uncharacteristically frightened, and Pepper was reminded, for split second, how inappropriate it was to send him to Cambridge without anyone to be family for him. 

“I swear, Anthony,” Pepper whispered and pressed her lips tentatively to his temple. His breath caught and the moment stretched between them as he lifted his head and pressed his lips cautiously to hers. 

It was a peck, nothing like she saw in the movies, but her entire world stopped for a moment, shifted itself, and settled into a new order. 

He blinked a few times, a shy blush spreading over his face, the kind he only gave to her, and he headed for his desk. Pulling out something that looked like a block of plastic, he handed it to her. “This is a phone.”

“A phone,” she repeated. 

“Yeah, it works on satellites and you don’t need to stay in your house, it works anywhere.”

“Anywhere?”

He nodded. “I built us each one, so we don’t just have to use email, we can talk whenever we want.”

She grinned. “You’re such a dork.”

He smirked back, “but I’m your dork.”

The moment was interrupted when Ana called from downstairs that Obie had come to wish Tony well before they set off. Pepper felt the familiar sense of dread that always came over her when Obie was around. There just was something not right about that guy. 

The pair made their way to the living room – Pepper wasn’t letting Tony out of her sight until the laws of physics demanded it – and found the older man already seated with a glass of scotch in his hand. 

“Tony, my boy! Big day!”

Pepper felt her skin crawl slightly as she always did when Uncle Obie was around and the same slight fear that Tony never saw it the same way. 

“Yeah, I guess,” he smiled a bit. 

“Of course it is! It is a massive accomplishment, Tony. We’re all so proud of you,” Obie confided, his voice dropping slightly as though telling Tony a secret. “And we all know you’re going to do great things, don’t we Pepper.”

“Yes, Uncle Obie.”

“See, even your girl agrees, now, I got you a gift, don’t open it until you get to Cambridge, and I’ll see you at Thanksgiving! Study hard.” 

And with the same level of bombast he blew into the house with, he blew right back out, leaving a frustrated Pepper and an awed Tony in his wake. Pepper hated the power Obie had over Tony. 

“Master Tony,” Jarvis interrupted gently, and Pepper turned to see Maria at his side. Well, that is unusual. Maria’s eyes found Pepper’s and they had a glass to them. And that is not. “Master Tony, we must be on our way.”

“Sorry, Jarvis, I’m ready,” Tony smiled at Pepper and pulled her in for one last hug. “Keep the phone on you, I’ll call tonight.”

She dared herself to kiss his cheek one more time, and felt her heart tear in two as he smiled his smile – the one only she got – and headed to the car with his Jarvis. He kissed his mother goodbye, threw a worried glance over his shoulder at Pepper, who nodded to say I’ll watch her, don’t worry, and then he was gone. 

Pepper didn’t put that phone down for _hours_. Finally, it rang and she answered it hurriedly. 

"Hello?"

_"Heya, Pep."_

"Got there safe?"

_"No, we were abducted by aliens and I'm calling you from Area 51."_

She sighed and he laughed, telling her he could hear her eye roll all the way from Cambridge. They settled in a normal, if quick, conversation and Pepper hung up feeling better, feeling like they could handle this separation, that it wouldn't change who they were. 

Plus, she mused as she got ready for bed. It got him away from Obie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on [ Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) for updates and previews of this fic and others.


	4. Chapter 4

_“I mean, he’s just the worst, Pepper and I don’t even know why I bother-“_

Pepper grabbed the nail polish bottle and applied more paint to her left big toe, thankful not for the first time that the fancy phone Tony had given her had speakerphone. 

“You bother, Tony, because he’s your professor, and controls whether or not you graduate,” she emphasized, rolling her eyes as she interrupted his flow. 

_“Meh,”_ came the unimpressed voice from down the line. _“What’s new with you?”_

She had been debating this for a few weeks, telling him. “You know Richie Parker?”

_“Richie Parker? The scholarship kid from Queens?”_

“Could you ever not just remember people as people and not bank statements?”

_“Fine, Richard Alexander Parker from Astoria. He’s hoping to major in botany at Columbia and studies all the time to make sure he can get a scholarship to do so. He’s about, what, 5’6”, and is also on the swim team. Oh, and he gave you a birthday card and you lost your shit, so I’m assuming you have a bit of a crush on him that you’re not telling me about. That Richie Parker?”_

She could hear the smirk in his voice through the line. “Yes, you dingbat, that Richie. I have a date with him on Friday.”

Of all the responses she expected, compete silence wasn’t one of them. 

“Tony?”

_“I’m here, listen, that sounds fun, I gotta go. Be safe, have fun, guard your carnal treasure and all that. Love you, Pep.”_

“Love you, too,” was barely out of her mouth before the dial tone droned into the silence of the room. Her face contorted into a frown, not quite sure what to make of Tony’s reaction.

_________________________________

Pep has a date.

As he twisted copper around the circuits and grabbed his torch for welding everything together, Tony tried to take a deep breath. Lighting himself on fire would not aid the situation at hand. 

“DUM-E,” Tony addressed his functional son, a claw robot he’d finished just last month. “Pep has a date.”

DUM-E, programmed to make noises whenever addressed, bleeped and booped appropriately. “I know! I know, the nerve. She’s 14, that feels young, doesn’t that feel young? For a date with the swim team captain? I mean, it just feels young, that is all I am saying.”

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Jarvis’ in his head replied _and yet 16 is not too young for you to be participating in extra circular activities with the daughter of the Austrian ambassador over the summer?_

Screwing his face into a glare, he told his internal Jarvis to shut up and went back to ranting at DUM-E about the fact that his _totally platonic_ best friend was going on a date that weekend with someone who wasn’t him. Because if Tony Stark was good at one thing, it was lying to himself about Pepper.

_________________________________

To: tstark001@mit.edu  
From: ppotts@starksystems.com

T – 

I get what you’re saying, but you have to come home for Thanksgiving. I have things to tell you that I’ve been saving for in person and so you have to come home. 

Pep

\---

To: ppotts@starksystems.com  
From: tstark001@mit.edu

Pep –

Things?

T

\---

To: tstark001@mit.edu  
From: ppotts@starksystems.com 

You know, I really hoped that you taking some 300 level classes as a sophomore was going to mean you’d exhaust yourself to the point where you were no longer an obnoxious, loud mouth bother, I but I see that was too much to ask for. And yes, of course you’re my loud mouth bother, but that is beside the point. 

Yes, Anthony, things. Things I want to tell my best friend in person and not over the phone and not in an email. I haven’t seen you in six weeks and that is the longest we’ve ever gone. Ana and I were even going to make that weird rhubarb thing you like. 

\---

From: tstark001@mit.edu  
To: ppotts@starksystems.com

The guilt, the guilt, Pep, I’m simply drowning in it. 

Fine, but only for the rhubarb. And I want a timer set – no more than 15 minutes at a time where I have to be near Howard.

_________________________________

_Why did his mouth taste like sandpaper?_

Tony blinked open his eyes to a surprisingly bright light for his bedroom and rolled over, realizing that his hip was hitting something exceptionally hard. 

“Oh fuck,” he moaned out loud, remembering where he was. 

The drunk tank. 

“Anthony,” Tony heard Obie’s voice and turned his body towards it. “Let’s go.” The voice was firm and there was a touch of anger, but mostly it was kind. _Thank God Howard wasn’t here._

“He doesn’t know yet,” Obie responded and Tony realized he had said the last part out loud. “Just me and Jarvis and I propose we keep it that way. Now, let’s go.”

As Tony unfolded himself and walked on unsteady feet out of the station, thankful not for the first time that they always did Thanksgiving at the Hamptons house. Sure, there would be gossip, but the Post didn’t have photographers camped outside the police station. 

“Obie, do you have my stuff?”

Obie nodded curtly. “Your phone, wallet, signet ring, and belt.”

Tony nodded numbly and let himself be led to the car for a silent ride back to the mansion, where Jarvis was waiting for them at his private entrance. 

“I have informed Ana,” Jarvis said quickly, “because she would notice Master Tony’s absence and will be adept at distracting Mr. Stark if necessary.”

“Good thinking, Jarvis,” Obie responded as Tony was shuffled along like no one trusted him to move on his own. _Probably wise_ , he thought. 

Jarvis led him into a bathroom, indicated he should shower and produced a fresh set of clothes. Once alone, Tony became afraid to close his eyes as the memories of the previous 24 hours came into focus. 

_“Tony,” Pepper had said. “I want you to come out with us. He’s my boyfriend and you’re my best friend and this is important to me.”_

_“Fine,” Tony grumbled, “fine. Where are we going?”_

_She grinned and his heart beat just a bit faster, the way it always did when she smiled at him. “Alistair is throwing a house party out on Shelter Island.”_

_“No.”_

_“Tony, please.”_

_“Pepper, there is nothing on Shelter Island.”_

_“There is evidently a house and I would like to go and I don’t understand why you are being such a stick-in-the-mud? Who are you and where is my best friend who is always down for anything?”_

_“I have standards Pepper.”_

_“You do not,” she retorted and rested her hand on his. “Anthony, please. Rich is important to me and you’re important to me, and I want you guys to be friends. Please.”_

_Her ‘please’ was always his kryptonite, so he rolled his eyes dramatically and let her drag him thirty minutes north on the Friday night after Thanksgiving._

The party had been fine, he supposed. It was full of kids from Westcove, and there was a group of people down from some school in Connecticut called Chilton and he’d done some shots with a girl named Lorelai before her boyfriend dragged her off. It was kind of nice to be around people his age for a little while, but he’d promised Pepper he’d drive her home and so he was being careful. He’d brought his own scotch; he knew enough about house parties to know not to trust their liquor. He’d made a comment like that to Rhodey once, who howled with laughter and told him to never go to a kegger. Tony had replied he’d just bring his own flask to supplement. 

Pleasantly buzzed, but not so much that he couldn’t get the MacLaren back down the road, it was hovering around 2am when he went to look for Pepper to ask when she wanted to head. 

And when he found her, his head exploded and he didn’t remember a lot after that. 

He did remember what it felt like to see _Richard Fucking Parker’s_ hands all over Pepper, to see his Pepper wrapped up and around _Richard Fucking Parker_ , and how fast he needed to get as much of his scotch down his throat as possible as if to cleanse the memory from himself. 

He had some vague memories of driving while crying, of feeling like his skin was the only thing keeping him from going everywhere at absolute once, and of being pulled out of the car. Not enough to piece things together, though. 

He had a feeling that Obie would be only too happy to fill in the details. 

“Coffee, asprin, water, toast,” Obie pointed to the various items on the coffee table as Tony sat down in the Jarvis’ living room, in their cabin at the back of the Stark property. Tony nodded, gratefully taking the coffee. “What do you remember?”

“Not much,” Tony croaked. And what I do remember, I’m not telling you.

“You nearly killed yourself,” Obie said flatly. “I have no earthly idea how you didn’t total the car, but the police found you unconscious on the side of the road with the car still running. They think you got out to pee and passed out.”

“Probably,” Tony said. “I always have to pee a lot when I drink.”

“You always,” Obie started. “Anthony, you are sixteen years old.”

“Thank you for the reminder,” Tony sassed. 

“Boy, don’t you start with me right now,” Obie warned, a tone creeping into his voice that Tony didn’t recognize. “You are exceptionally lucky that I know the officer who found you and he called me and not your father. Exceptionally. You are going to clean up your act, you are going to stop drinking, and you are going to be a good boy, you hear me?”

Tony internally rolled his eyes but nodded. He didn’t feel like dealing with Howard’s temper or his fists today, so Obie’s mild anger was the preferred alternative. 

“Now, I’m going to Shelter Island to collect Pepper, since you abandoned her. She’s why we went looking for you, actually, so you should really thank her. And when she gets back, we'll continue this.”

Tony nodded and cast his eyes about the room to see if he could spot Jarvis. He needed more coffee. 

After Obie left, Tony curled himself onto the couch and tried to fall back asleep, grateful that the couch was more comfortable than the bench in the tank. He felt Ana’s cool hand on his forehead and cracked an eye open. 

“Hi Ana,” he mumbled. 

“Good morning, pet,” she replied, with a sad smile. “I told your parents that you came over to fix my computer late last night and fell asleep here, so you are safe. Mr. Stane said he took care of all of the legal things, so you just rest now, okay?”

“Okay, Ana,” he replied and rolled over, snoring gently within seconds. 

“Jarvis,” Ana said softly as she went into the kitchen. “Now, _now_ is when we tell Maria she must tell them. Today.”

“He behaved atrociously, Ana,” Jarvis snapped. “Why are you not furious?”

She blinked at her husband. “Do you not think that I can be caring and furious at the same time? Gah, what do you know? He is clearly in pain, our boy is, and that you can’t see that because all you can see is the result of the pain is terrible, Edwin.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. “Only one thing in this life would cause him enough pain to be that reckless – his family. Howard and Maria were not at that party last night, you and I were here, but where was Pepper?”

Jarvis looked at his wife. “At that party with her boyfriend.”

Ana nodded decisively. “And so, today is the day Maria must tell the truth.”

Jarvis looked at his wife and then cast an eye back at the only son they’d ever know. “I don’t know how they’ll react.”

“I don’t either. But before Pepper falls in love with this Richie fellow and before Tony wraps himself around a tree because she did, they deserve to know.”

_________________________________

Pepper _seethed_ the entire ride back to the Stark’s with Uncle Obie and told him she had no desire to see Tony. Her uncle had replied calmly to that, saying that she could stay in her room for a while, but conversations would have to be had.

When Jarvis delivered a sandwich around 1pm, she’d been napping and continuing to seethe. 

“Ms. Potts?” his gentle voice called from the door. “Mrs. Stark wonders if you could join her for afternoon tea?”

_Because we’re in Fawlty Towers now?_ “Sure, Jarvis, of course.”

“Ana took the liberty of making you a sandwich to tide you over and requested that I ask if you need anything else.”

“Besides something to kill Tony with?”

She saw the ghost of a smirk cross Jarvis’ lips as he set the food down on her side table. “I believe whatever he ingested last night may have taken care of some of that for you.”

“Good,” she snapped. “Because of all the stupid things that boy has done, driving a sports car while off his ass drunk through the backroads and risking his life because he had to get out of a party and didn’t even have the decency to find me and tell me he was going, Jarvis, I know he’s an idiot, but ohmygod this was awful.”

“You’ll hear no disagreement from me, Ms. Potts,” Jarvis replied. “However, I believe my wife would ask both of us to remember that we love him and should hear his side of the story before we condemn him from our hearts.”

Pepper sighed and picked at her cuticles. “Why is Ana always right?”

“Because she’s Ana,” Jarvis said simply. “3pm in the morning room.”

_________________________________

Obie had told Tony that, as far as SI and the State of NY were concerned, the previous evening had never happened. The story that Howard got was that the MacLaren broke down on the side of the road and Tony called Jarvis to collect him. He and Pepper had been at a very calm party with some dear friends and Tony’s biggest mistake was leaving without Pepper.

The one Maria got was a little different, but still loose on details. 

_“Maria,” Obie said calmly. “You said you needed to be the one to tell them. Tony is 16 and the only reason he hasn’t gone completely and utterly insane is that MIT keeps him busy and he’s already in love with Pepper, he just doesn’t realize it yet. Pepper, however, might be falling for that Parker boy.”_

_“No,” Maria said, aghast, and Jarvis closed his eyes in silent thanks that Maria was cogent that day. “Alexander Parker’s boy? The one obsessed with plants?”_

_“He’s in her grade at Westcove, ma’am,” Jarvis supplied. “They have become close since Master Tony’s departure for MIT.”_

_“Well, then yes, I’ll do it today.”_

Which is how Tony and Pepper found themselves sitting the morning room, waiting for Maria to arrive. 

“Jarvis told me,” Pepper replied when Tony asked her how she found out about this weird turn of events. 

“Me too,” Tony said. “It’s just… Ma hasn’t had afternoon tea in, God, what, a decade?”

“I can’t remember,” Pepper confessed. “I didn’t even know she did them at all.”

“She used to host a lot of society shit out here in the summers,” Tony said. 

“Language, Anthony,” Maria interrupted from the doorway, “and she still does.”

They drank tea with halting conversation and munched on a few watercress sandwiches and Tony’s hands itched to grab Pepper and tell her he was so sorry, but she’d been avoiding him all day and Ana had wisely told him to let her lick her wounds by herself. 

“Now, let’s get down to business,” Maria’s clipped English interrupted a moment of silence. “There are things you two need to know, things that your fathers agreed to a long time ago.”

Both teens looked back at her slightly confused as she continued. “In order to ensure the permanent relationship between the two companies, it was decided that the two you of would eventually take over everything and in order for that to happen properly –“ she took a breath –“you were promised to each other in marriage.”

There was a split second of silence before both of them started howling in laughter. 

“Ma, you cannot be serious,” Tony finally said through chuckles. “It’s 1999, not 1499.”

Maria walked over to the credenza and pulled out a file folder, placing it on the table in front of them. “It’s all here.”

Tony gave Pepper a side glance and reached for the folder. He angled his body so they could both read. 

“So,” Tony said slowly after a few moments. “I will only inherit SI if I am married to Pepper, and Pepper only inherits P&S if she’s married to me.”

“Correct.”

“And we have to do this by the time Pepper turns 25.”

“Correct.”

“This is really fucked up,” Tony breathed. 

“Correct,” his mother smiled and he was gratified that his mother didn’t scold him for language. 

“I just don’t get it,” Pepper said. “I don’t want P&S. I’ve never wanted it, I can’t even, why would they do this.”

“Probably,” Tony said, “because they know you don’t want it, but they know I want SI, and this is the ultimate way to force our hand and ensure supply chain management.”

“ _Are you serious_ ,” Pepper breathed, looking at Tony. “You lose the whole Stark Industries kingdom if I say no?”

“11 years from now, yeah, I guess,” Tony sighed. “Ma, what do we do?”

“What do you mean, what do you do? You live your lives and when you are ready, you get married.”

“It cannot be that simple,” Tony protested as Pepper replied, “that seems too easy.”

Maria smiled at the adolescent naivety. “It will not be easy, but it will be simple. There is nothing in that document about love, nothing about commitment, just marriage and an heir. How you chose to conduct your marriage is up to you, but you both must know that you cannot take risks prior to whenever you decide to get married. After you get married, I would recommend discretion, but-“

Tony cut her off, horrified. “You think I could cheat on Pep?”

Something in Pepper’s heart unraveled at the tone of his voice, something that told her that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t quite the level of hell it could be. 

“Oh, _bambino_ , all I am saying is that your entire life isn’t governed by this. Just the public parts.” She looked back and forth to the two shell shocked teens. “I’ll leave you two alone now to talk, but if you have any questions, come find me.”

She kissed them both on the forehead and took her leave. 

Tony got up and started to pace. “I’m so sorry, Pepper, I’m just so sorry, I’ll figure out something, we’ll figure out something, there has to be a way, you shouldn’t have to, this is archaic and there has to be a law against it and I can’t imagine-“

“I’m not upset.”

That froze Tony in his tracks. “What?”

“Are you?”

“Am I what?”

“Are you upset that we have to be together forever?”

Tony blinked. “No.”

“Then why are you panicking?” 

“I’m not.”

“You’re doing your panicked pacing.”

“I’m not.”

“Tony,” she smiled softly and patted the couch next to her. “Sit.”

He took a few beats and then collapsed onto the couch next to her. “This is fucking weird.”

“It is,” she replied, “but here’s how I figure it. We were going to be together in some way forever anyway, because there was no way in hell I was ever letting you go, you’re my best friend, my person, and it’s always going to be Tony and Pep against the world, somehow, so I’m okay with this. I’m just sorry for you?”

“For me?”

She nodded, ducking her head a bit shyly. “I know I’m not your kind of girl, so I’m sorry you’ll have to be with me, I’m sure-“

He cut her off by grabbing her hands. “What bullshit is that, you’re not my kind of girl? Where the fuck did that come from?”

Pepper rolled her eyes and shook her hands free. “Oh please, Tony, you never clear your search history.”

He made a face at her and then shook his head. “Porn is fantasy, Pep. Means nothing.”

“That’s bullshit. Fantasy always has faces and –“

He cut her off. “I don’t use their faces, I don’t even use – God, Pep, only you would make me, fuck it, I don’t have enough pictures of my type because it’s only one girl. So I use the clothes they’re in or the positions and I imagine me and that girl. That’s it. That’s porn for me.”

She blinked a few times, clearly never having considered this before. “Why don’t you have enough pictures of the girl?”

He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “Because there will never be enough photos for me of her. She’s… anyway. You don’t need to worry about the porn, that’s the point. And I’m not upset if you’re not upset.”

There was something Tony wasn’t telling Pepper. “I’m not upset,” she said slowly, “but since I’m your fiancé now, I think I get to know who the girl is.” She cackled a little. “Fiancé, that’s hilarious. Betrothed? Intended? What’s less weird?”

“None of this is less weird,” he replied, grinning wryly. “But let’s pump the brakes on fiancé until we’re actually more ready to do the ceremony.”

“Who’s the girl,” Pepper continued, starting to poke him in the ribs. “Who,” she poked, “is”, she poked again, “the girl?” She grinned as he flinched away. 

“God, Pepper, you will make a really good CEO someday.”

“You’re obfuscating,” Pepper said. 

“Your SATs are a few years off,” he retorted. “No need for the big words.”

“You’re avoiding my question, you annoying jagweed!” She cried. 

“Well, that’s certainly more appropriate vocabulary. The point is moot, Pep. She’s got a boyfriend,” Tony said. “So, it’s not possible right now.”

“I don’t care if it’s possible, I want to know my competition!”

He shook his head at her in bemusement. “You have no competition. Leave it, Pep. Now-“

“No, I’m not leaving it! This is really bothering me now,” she said. “I don’t like secrets and we just found out a big one and I need you and I to be on the same page here and so I-“

She stopped when she heard him whisper something. “What was that?”

He cleared his throat. “The girl,” he said, “is you. You’re the girl. Now, I’m going to go die in a vat of acid made of my own embarrassment, so make sure to take care of DUM-E for me, will you?”

And before she could stop him, he nearly ran from the room.

_________________________________

“Jesus Christ, Tony,” he muttered to himself in his makeshift workshop in the old carriage house. “Could you be more stupid, she has never, and Rhodey told you not to say anything and now you’re tied to her forever and you went and did that.”

The problem for Tony with the revelations of today wasn’t that he was betrothed to Pepper. No, that was actually kind of the best news he’d had in a while. The problem was that over the last few months, he’d slowly realized that he was in love with Pepper. At first, he’d thought it was the fact that she was the only girl he really knew. MIT students weren’t super into jailbait, after all, but then he’d gone to a few prep school parties up in Boston and hooked up with enough folks of both genders to know that Pep was it for him. 

He’d had a plan to act on that knowledge in maybe, say, twenty years when he got his shit together and he wasn’t an embarrassing mess, like Howard was constantly screaming at him. Combine that with the fact that he was getting a B in ochem, he certainly wasn’t going to try to get Pep to fall in love with a failure. 

But then she kept pushing, and he really could never deny her anything, not when she saw through the quips and the jokes and the everything. 

He grabbed a socket wrench and went to town on the engine he was rebuilding out of boredom, losing himself completely in the Led Zeppelin he put on and the work of his hands. 

At some point, he noticed the music had switched to N*Sync and he looked over towards the CD player, wondering how it malfunctioned and saw Pep calmly sitting on the couch he’d dragged in there for her. She was flipping through a magazine like she didn’t have a care in the world and he was very confused. 

“Pep, we’ve talked about boybands.”

“Well, we’ve also talked about leaving in the middle of important conversations, so I guess we both get to break rules today,” she replied, not even looking up at him, but turning down the music. 

“Pep, can we not do this?”

“Can we not do what, Anthony,” she replied, and he was reminded for the thousandth time that her grace and wisdom was light years ahead of her age. God, he was _gone_ for her. 

“Can we please go back to before I said what I said and forget about it,” Tony begged. 

“Okay, well, then we can talk about why you nearly wrapped your car around a tree at 2am,” she growled. “Would you rather talk about that?”

“Okay, so further back. Like, yesterday,” Tony verbally danced a bit. 

“Yesterday, when you were an ass about going to meet my boyfriend – who I just broke up with, by the way.”

“You broke up with Plant Boy?”

“The nicknames, Tony, of course I did,” she said exasperatedly. “You just told me you loved me and your mom told me we’re getting married, did you honestly think I was going to stay with a guy that I kind of had feelings for instead of being with my lobster?”

“Your what now?”

“Lobsters mate for life,” she said confidently. “They said so on _Friends_.”

“Well, if Chandler Bing said it –“

“Phoebe, actually,” she said, grinning slightly. “So, can we please talk about what you said in the morning room?”

“Pepper, this is all happening really fast,” he swallowed as she moved towards him. 

“Good thing you’re a genius and your brain processes information at a speed of 2.7x the average person, isn’t that what you’re always telling me?”

“Pep, this isn’t-“

“Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“Did you mean it that I’m the girl, I’m your girl,” Pepper whispered. 

“Yes,” he breathed, defeated entirely by her. “Always.”

“Me too,” she stepped into his personal space and pressed her lips to his. 

It took about three milliseconds for him to register what was happening before his lips were sliding open to accept her tongue and his hands were wrapping themselves around her independent of his brain. 

They stood, pressed together in his dusty workshop, warmed by the space heater and their own bodies, and the only thought that either of them had was _home. I’m home_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coming up next, Tony and Pepper flirt and plan for the future, Howard shares his opinions of Tony's GPA, and Obie's evil plan is put into action. 
> 
> Thanks for the kudos, bookmarks, and subscriptions. This is a weird little tale, but it's busting out of my head so I'm glad y'all are enjoying it.


	5. Chapter 5

**May 2001**

The next few years for Tony were a blur of Pepper and robots. Now that he knew he and Pep were each other’s endgame, it was like a stopper got pulled out of a drain. All the love he’d had for her that he was being cautious about telling her – that she was his true home, that she made everything in his life make sense, that she was why he hadn’t just killed Howard yet – he told her. 

For Pepper’s part of it, her life was definitely full of Tony, but she was also getting increasingly suspicious of her Uncle Obie. Her father died in early October of 2000 and the lawyers told her that Obie was her official guardian until she turned 18. She was decidedly unhappy about this news. 

_“Anthony, I am telling you that there is something really weird about him and I don’t know why you don’t see it!”_

_“Pep, sure, he stares a little long sometimes and I could do with less of the lingering thing he does when he’s done talking, but he loves us and he wants what’s best for us,” Tony resolutely responded. “Can you hand me the 3/8ths?”_

_She did and continued. “I’m 15, Tony, not an idiot, and I know creepers when I see them. Uncle Obie is a creeper.”_

_Tony rolled his eyes. “You’re dramatic. Now,” he leaned his body over the robot he was working on to give her a long kiss. “Can we please get back to more important things? Like what do you want me to wear to your dance?”_

_Pepper was not going to let this go. “Promise me that if he ever does anything, or that if I ever feel not safe with him, that you’ll believe me.”_

_Tony stared at her, clearly confused._

_“Promise me, Tony,” Pepper said strongly._

_“I promise, babe, I promise.”_

_She smiled sadly, knowing she’d gained as much ground as she was going to._

The robot end of Tony’s Robot + Pepper life equation also moved at a delightful clip that Tony knew he should be prepared for a catastrophic end of, but he was too busy being kind of happy for once to notice it. 

Until his final spring break. 

He came home in his usual manner, racing out of Jarvis’ car and through the house to his workshop to check in on his bots. He had a rotation of experiments running at all times; he kept his first childbot, who he’d christened DUM-E, with him pretty much wherever he was, but the other four he left in New York in order to collect data on their higher functions and relationship with his burgeoning AI. 

What he found in his workshop that day, however, stopped him in his tracks and made his blood run cold. 

All four of his bots were in states of disrepair, his welding mask had two holes shot into it, and a hand scrawled note from Howard telling Tony to report to his office. 

When Pepper arrived later in the day, Ana met her at the door. 

“Darling,” Ana whispered. “It has not been a good day.”

Pepper paused. “Where is he?”

“I put him in your room,” Ana grabbed Pepper’s hands gently. “If you need help changing the bandages, just call the kitchen.”

Pepper nodded and gave Ana a brief hug. “Thank you for loving him,” she whispered to the older woman. 

“I love you both, Virginia, remember that,” Ana whispered. 

As Pepper gathered her wits and took a deep breath, she knew that whatever Howard had done to Tony that day, they had passed a point of no return. Tony’s face, brain, and hands would be fine – because Howard needed those – but she prepared herself for paralysis, or burns, or … she didn’t know what. 

As she pushed the door gently open, she heard him murmur, “it better be Pep.”

“It is, love,” Pep whispered. “What do you need?”

“I need you to snuggle, but he broke two ribs, so also I need you to not touch me at all,” he smiled sadly from his carefully arranged position on the bed. 

“Can I get you ice?”

He shook his head. “I’m on a heat/ice schedule and Jarvis has it all worked out. I think there’s a chart.”

“Of course there’s a chart,” Pep sat gingerly on the bed and rubbed her fingers through his hair. “It’s Jarvis.”

They sat in the quiet for several minutes, the only soundtrack being Tony’s labored breathing. Finally, he spoke. “He destroyed all of them but DUM-E.”

“What do you mean ‘destroyed’?”

“Just that,” he replied, his voice devoid of emotion. “He broke them down and destroyed their parts so that I couldn’t rebuild them. He couldn’t figure out the AI data, thank fuck, or couldn’t find it, so I have that, but the actual bots themselves? Gone.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“Your grades in all the chem stuff are fine, though,” Pepper replied. 

Tony barked and then winced. “Cannot do that, yeah, they are, I have a 3.9 across the board, but you know Howard.”

Pepper nodded, blinking back the tears that arrived at the sound of defeat in his voice. “So what do we do?”

“I don’t know, Pep,” Tony sighed. “I really have no idea.”

That phrase, which Pepper had never heard come out of Tony’s mouth, was her undoing. She curled herself next to him on the bed, careful not to touch him anywhere but where their foreheads touched, and wept along with the boy she loved.

_________________________________

“Well, this is helpful.”

Obadiah Stane had been playing a long game for the better part of a decade and things were finally falling into place. 

Earlier that day, he’d been snooping in Tony’s room while the boy was out with the girl and found two very important items. One, a packet of birth control pills, and two, an engagement ring. It was only four days until Tony’s graduation, so time was of the essence, but he’d done bigger things quicker before. 

It was imperative that he stopped this fool marriage that he’d tried to talk his brother-in-law out of. They’d been so desperate for cash that Samuel had been far too willing to take the carrot and ignore the stick. Obie would not make the same mistake. And while he was fairly sure that Tony wouldn’t actually propose until Pepper was closer to the age of consent, Howard’s recent temper tantrums did not inspire confidence in Tony’s patience. 

Jarvis and Ana were obstacles, of course, and Pepper was far too smart for her own good, but none of that really mattered now that Obie had found the clause he was looking for. 

And, if Virginia Potts is not of legal age when Anthony Stark assumes control of Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane, or designee, shall serve as her regent on the board. If Anthony is not of age, then Mr. Stane shall also assume regency on behalf of Anthony.

As Obie set the final plans in motion, he began to whistle joyfully. 

He loved it when a plan came together.

_________________________________

It all happened so fucking fast.

There was a crash, and fire, and Tony’s eyes couldn’t focus for a few seconds, and when they did, Obie was in front of him. 

“Tony, Tony my boy, there’s been an accident, you were driving, you killed your parents. You need to get out of here before the police show up. Tony, can you hear me?”

Tony blinked, not really understanding what was happening. 

“I killed Howard?”

“And Maria, yes, I know it was an accident, but they’ll get you on vehicular manslaughter, Tony, do you hear me, you need to get out of here. I’ll take care of everything.”

_They did the perfunctory press photos for the university and for the company. Tony smiled wide and made sure that no one would be able to pick up on any tension between him and Howard. He knew his job._

_Despite all of Howard’s ranting and raving, Tony had finished top of the class in both of his majors and already had offers to continue on for his PhD. He’d turned them all down, knowing that while he did want to keep doing his research and a PhD could come in handy, he and Pep had 18 months before they could get married and he had to keep his head down and do some of the fucking organic chemistry bullshit that Howard wanted so that he wouldn’t hurt Pep._

_He got all the photos he really wanted with Rhodey, with Jarvis and Ana. He negotiated fifteen minutes alone with Pep to get the one photo he really wanted – her wearing his cap, him in his gown, kissing under the arch of the admin building._

_They’d all climbed into cars after that. Pep was driving Jarvis and Ana back to the house – she’d just gotten her learner’s permit and needed the practice hours – and Tony took the wheel for him, Maria, and Howard. Howard had given him a customized Aston Martin Vanquish as a graduation gift/PR event and there needed to be some pictures of Tony driving. Tony didn’t want to know, actually, how much it had cost Howard to get them to install a small back bench seat in the sports car, but he was grateful that the miracle workers at Aston Martin had done so without taking away any of the car’s sexiness._

_The ride had been tense. Maria popped a pill and fell asleep immediately, Howard monologued about what Tony would be doing when he started work on Monday, and Tony ignored both of them as he dreamed about the getaway to Paris he was surprising Pepper with for her birthday later that summer._

_And then, somewhere just after the Connecticut state line, he lost complete control of the car._

“I didn’t mean to,” Tony started crying, blinking rapidly as he stared at Obie’s kind face. “I don’t know what happened, I didn’t mean to, I don’t understand, everything was fine, I was fine, where’s Pepper?”

“They pulled off at a rest stop a while back, so they’re no where near us. Tony, you have to listen to me. Take my car and get to JFK. There’s an unregistered Stark plane there and you can head to Switzerland for a while until this calms down. I’ll work with our lawyers and I’ll take care of everything and once we clear your name, you can come home. Tony, you need to go.”

Tony felt like he was swimming through molasses. “Can I write Pep a note?”

A look passed over Obie’s face, but he nodded. Tony scrambled to look for his bag and pulled out a graduation card one of his advisor’s had given him. 

_Pep –_

_I fucked up, and I’m going away for a bit until Obie can clean it up. As soon as it’s safe, I’ll come back or you can come to Switzerland or whatever, but I love you, and I’m sorry, and I love you._

_Your favorite idiot,  
Tony_

Tony swallowed hard and then handed Obie the piece of paper. “And you’ll explain to Jarvis and Ana?”

“Of course I will, my boy, of course. Now, get going before it’s too late.”

_________________________________

“I don’t understand,” Pepper said slowly. “What do you mean _he’s gone_.”

“When I got to the accident scene, he was gone,” Obie shrugged his shoulders. “I have a team combing the area in case it’s an amnesia situation, but we were just at the edge of Bigelow Hollow, the state park up there, and so it could take a while.”

“He cannot be gone,” Pepper repeated. “And you’re sure he was driving? He and Howard hadn’t changed?”

Obie shook his head. “I found Howard,” Obie swallowed dramatically and Pepper forced herself not to roll her eyes. She was well aware there was no part of Obie who was grieving right now, no matter what other show he put on for other people. “I found Howard dead in the passenger seat.” 

Pepper wrung her hands together and worried her lip. _What would Tony want me to do? What am I missing here?_

“So, I’ll be taking over SI for the time being,” Obie continued to explain. “I’m sure you don’t want anything to do with it, so you can just trust me.”

And with that simple statement, everything slid into place in Pepper’s traumatized brain. 

Pepper knew that all of this was Obie’s fault. 

Now she just had to prove it.


	6. Chapter 6

**After: Tony**

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, he started breathing again.

The plane that Obie had told him to get on had a jump bag full of fake identities for him, Maria, and Howard. Bless Howard’s paranoid little heart, Tony thought as he shuffled through the ones meant for him.

He didn’t want one that didn’t have something to do with his name – he wasn’t sure he could react quickly enough to not be found out – so he found Anthony Martinelli, an Italian national, and went with it.

He’d instructed the pilot to put him down at the Code Seven coordinates, which turned out to be a private air strip in Greenland, where he then got on a different private plane to Switzerland.

To Tony’s mind, the coordination of travel spoke to Obie’s ability to keep Tony safe – and the need to. He’d done some quick searches on the limited Internet that the plane could connect to about involuntary manslaughter and nothing looked good.

“Obie’s right,” he muttered as they entered Swiss airspace. “The best way to keep Pep safe is to disappear. When Obie’s cleared everything, it’ll all be okay.”

When Tony arrived at the address in Basel that Obie had sent him to, he pulled out the burner phone and sent a quick text.

_+1(212)455-2343: At appointed place. Will wait further instructions._

_+1(212)443-1212: Use new papers. Get a job. Settle in. Will be long haul. Toss this phone._

Tony chewed his bottom lip. He had good French, excellent Italian, and passable German. At that moment, he could not have told you which one would be more useful in Switzerland or how he was going to go about making a living and –

God bless the European Union. He thought with a smile and grasped his Italian passport. Tony Stark of Manhattan may have some trouble getting work without a visa, but Anthony Martinelli of Venice had working rights all over the EU.

There was food in the apartment and some basic clothes – Tony noted things in all three of their sizes and wondered just how deep his father’s paranoia went – so he laid low for a week. He got a Swiss phone, and hot-wired the television to get better channels, and set up a basic router to pull wireless signals from. He flirted just a little with the two older women that lived on either side of him, knowing that he’d have to leave the house soon and didn’t want them to remember him too much, but he really had no idea how to feed himself.

He made up a quick back story that would account for his American accent – he was born in Venice but was basically raised by his maternal grandparents in Manhattan – God rest their souls – and so that’s why he was as American as he was Italian. He quickly learned that past “American?” few folks asked too many questions. And when they did, he turned it back on them. First rule of sales that Howard had ever taught him; everyone loves to talk about themselves.

A month passed and all he kept hearing from Obie was that he should continue to lay low. Basel was big enough that he could move to another part of the city and get completely lost, so he left the family apartment and struck out on his own.

He spent six months in total in Basel, working as a mechanic and an English teacher, selling some homemade wireless routers on the side. From there, he hopped a train to France and worked his way around the Rivera. He rang in 2002 in Monte Carlo, crying in a youth hostel about the time he and his family came to Monaco and how much he missed his mother.

Every week he texted Obie for permission to come home, or to at least contact Pepper and every week he got a not yet.

2002 turned into 2003 and Tony continued to make his way through France, Spain, Portugal – everywhere his Italian passport could get him work. If it wasn’t for the fact that he missed Pepper like he missed his own soul, it wouldn’t have been a bad life.

But the fact was, he did miss Pepper.

He missed her so much he couldn’t breathe.

One particularly morose weekend in the summer of 2002, he’d bought a notebook and started writing her letters.

_Pep –_

_I’m in… Calais? Maybe? I can’t remember. What I do know is that I got to work on a car yesterday that was so old cats were living in it. Remember that cat that kept trying to sleep in that oven at school?_

_I miss you so much. I miss your hair, and your skin, and your lips, but I swear I miss your brain most of all. I know Obie is working as hard as he can to get us back together, but man, I wish he could work faster._

_I’m not good with the words, and this makes me feel like Private Ryan or something, but I have so much to tell you that I may explode, so, this is what we got._

_Yours,  
T_

By the end of that summer, the book was full and he’d moved on to another. By the time that 2003 rolled around and he found himself in Edinburgh, he bought a mp3 player and a microphone and started recording his letters to her that way. Wherever Anthony Martinelli moved, he took three bags with him. One backpack full of odds and ends, one suitcase of clothes, and one small satchel that contained ten notebooks and an increasing number of mini cassette tapes. And everywhere Anthony Martinelli lived, no one got to look inside that satchel.

In the autumn of 2003, Obie sent a message that he needed to see Tony in person. At that point, Tony had settled into Aberdeen and was working as a mechanic on an oil rig. The night before Obie showed up, Tony shaved off the grubby beard he’d been growing out of sheer laziness and pulled out the one outfit he kept that looked like his old life.

“Tony, my boy!” Obie said as he came into Tony’s small flat.

Tony felt relief wash over him. He hadn’t quite believed that Obie was coming, hadn’t quite believed it would ever end. “Hi Obie,” he embraced the man. “Tea? Beer? Scotch? Those are the options. I have some Iron Bru, but it’s like carbonated Dimetapp so I really wouldn’t recommend.”

“Scotch is good. Laphroaig if you have it.”

Tony nodded and poured Obie a finger and got himself a finger of Glenlivet. “So, when can we leave?”

Obie cocked his head to one side. “You going somewhere, Tony? You seem quite settled here.”

Tony made a face. “I’m not settled, I haven’t been settled anywhere in four years. I’m ready to come home, Obie, I thought you were here to bring me home.”

Obie’s face twisted into an expression of concern. “Oh, Tony, my boy, no. I came to tell you that it hasn’t worked. My plan. I’m sorry, I really am, I’m so sorry.”

Tony felt like he’d been electrocuted. _What. The. Fuck._

“What do you mean, it hasn’t worked,” Tony growled.

Obie threw up his hands. “I couldn’t get them to drop the charges! The roads were fine, and you fled without getting a blood alcohol test-“

“I fled because YOU MADE ME,” Tony roared.

“-and so they’ve ruled that you were drunk driving and there’s a warrant out for your arrest. If Tony Stark ever comes back into U.S. territory, you’ll be arrested.”

Tony’s brain was whirring. “So, can Pep come here?”

“That’s what I really came to talk to you about,” Obie said, and reached into his jacket pocket. He handed Tony a piece of newspaper.

“What is this,” Tony said slowly. “What the living fuck am I looking at.”

“She waited as long as she could, Tony,” Obie said softly.

“She’s dating someone?”

Obie nodded. “He’s a good man, you’d like him.”

_I don’t like ANYONE who isn’t ME with MY PEPPER_ , Tony roared inside his head, but he couldn’t make any of the words come out.

Obie was saying other words, but Tony couldn’t focus on any of them. Finally, Obie touched Tony’s hand and held out a pen.

“What?”

“I need you to sign this so I can continue to run SI in your absence, Tony,” Obie explained patiently. “This way I don’t have to get you declared legally dead and if there’s ever a way to get the ruling overturned, you can come home and live your legacy.”

Words were pouring out of Obie’s mouth, Tony knew, but none of them were making sense. He numbly scribbled a signature that was so out of use it felt foreign.

Obie stayed a few more seconds before kissing Tony on the forehead and saying he’d be back later, once Tony had time to process all the news.

Obie never came back.

Obie also stopped answering Tony’s text messages.

So Tony gave up on Obie.

He did not, however, give up on Pepper.

Tony wasn’t surprised that Pepper wasn’t on MySpace, but he couldn’t find the boyfriend either. That was weird, he thought, but maybe they were super private. The only new notices he could find were of her acceptance from the University of Pennsylvania for a BA in Business Administration and a note that she had made Dean’s List during her freshman year.

_Of course she did_ , he thought with a sad smile, _she’s Pepper_.

He couldn’t, no matter how many times he stared at the newspaper clipping Obie had brought him, imagine her actually with someone named Boris.

So, no, Pepper was not dead to him. He kept up his voice recordings, and sometimes reverted back to paper letters if he was stuck in a bar somewhere when a thought came to him and all he had was coasters or napkins.

Wherever Tony was for the rest of his life, he vowed, he’d have Pepper with him.

As he could get his hands on new parts, he built a small computer to hold everything on and digitized most of the archive. Whenever he was lonely, or his soul felt itchy, he talked to Pepper.

In the fall of 2005, he heard of a project over in Belfast, Northern Ireland that was in need of highly skilled mechanics. Scotland was great, but he was ready for a change, so he had his supervisor put in a word, and fairly soon he was figuring out how to rent flats in a city more confusing than Cambridge had even a prayer of being.

“American?”

Tony had found refuge in a chip shop not far from the estate agent’s that he’d been leafing through flat options in. He turned to see a scruffy looking man, about his age, with a wide smile on his face. “Yeah. New York.”

“Brooklyn,” the other man said. “Wuddya doing in Belfast?”

“Hopefully working at Harland and Wolf,” Tony responded.

“Me too,” the man stuck out a hand. “James, but my friends call me Bucky.”

“Anthony, and my friends call me Ant,” Tony replied.

‘Ant’ had been a Scottish addition to his backstory. Turns out that it was a derivative of Anthony. It had the added bonus of being a name he hadn’t heard Pepper use.

“Been on the island long?”

Tony shook his head. “No, arrived last night. I filled out the paperwork this morning and was hoping to find a flat, but…”

Bucky laughed, a wry sound that Tony could hear stories behind. “Yeah, not easy in this place. Listen, not to be weird, but I gotta spare room down on the Ormeau, which you don’t know what that means, close enough to the docks. I’ve been here for three years and it’s amazing, but it’s hard. The room’s yours for a week if you want it and then we can see from there.”

Tony blinked at him a few times. “You for fucking real?”

Bucky nodded and took the final bite of his fish. “I’m a retired sniper with the U.S. Marine Corps and haven’t slept with both eyes open in about ten years. You can’t kill me. I have nothing to rob and I haven’t heard an American accent that wasn’t outta my best friend’s mouth in about three years. Actually, one question.”

“Yeah?”

“Pinstripes or Orange?”

Tony grinned, feeling completely at home for the first time since that state forest in Connecticut. “My ex and I used to joke about having Mr. Met at our wedding.”

“Then, my fine sir, the bed is yours.”

_________________________________

Bucky brought two other Americans along to Tony’s life – Steve Rogers and his wife, Natasha. They were all retired Marines who had taken over Steve’s grandfather’s mechanic shop once their tours were over. The shop had three locations and the trio also ran a tourism company in the spring and summer.

Within about six weeks, they were the family Tony had never had. Steve was an able mother hen, doting and cajoling and caregiving. Tasha, as she preferred to be called, was easily the simultaneously scariest and most wonderful woman Tony had met in a damn long time and she made him miss Pepper so much he hurt. Bucky reminded him of a softer, sadder version of Rhodey, which was fine with Tony, because he felt like a softer, sadder version of himself.

The week he’d been in Bucky’s spare room turned into a permanent arrangement and once the contract was up at Harland and Wolf, Steve hired Tony on and he just… stayed. He bounced back and forth between their Belfast shop, the one out in Dungannon, and the original one up on the Antrim Coast.

In the summer of 2007, he bought a parcel of land outside of Ballycastle and built himself a house. He dreamed of Pepper in it, of the children they would have had if he hadn’t made the biggest mistake of his life, of the life that they had been building together. He found himself putting the windows to catch the sun in the way she would have loved and picking the shade of hardwood flooring he knew she favored.

Or, had favored. He hadn’t spoken to her in six years.

Before long, Ant Martinelli was well known around the province. The “wee American fella” who could fix anything with wires, and who kept to himself until you got a few glasses of Bushmills into him and then you oughta let him loose on a piano. He had a reputation for being charming and a little sarcastic, for being up for anything, but everyone had a feeling that no one really knew him, except maybe those other Americans he worked with.

Early on in their friendship, Bucky and Steve tried their best to get Tony to tell them about his past, and he humored them with some stories. Some Bucky and Steve swore were lies – _who really graduates from MIT at 17_ – and some were just sad, but they all left giant holes in the story of Ant.

_“Knock it off, you two,” Tasha had told them one night. “You’re pushing him. People get to keep their secrets.”_

_“Tasha, he flirts with everything that moves yet hasn’t made a move since we’ve known him. There’s a story there,” Bucky said._

_“You wanna fuck him,” Tasha responded evenly. “Is that what this is about?”_

_Bucky stared at her for a few beats. “I mean, of course, I'm not an idiot, but no, this is about that I don’t like not knowing stuff about people I care about.”_

_Tasha smirked. “Tough titties, Bucky Bear. Because that boy is in nine kinds of pain that he thinks he deserves. You’ll get nothing out of him.”_

Bucky tried, he really did, to follow Tasha’s advice. But then New Year’s Eve of 2008 happened.

Bucky and Tony were really drunk, which was a state that Tony only rarely allowed himself to achieve these days when other people were around. It had taken about three years, but he finally decided that maybe, just maybe, Bucky wasn’t other people.

“If my dad were alive, he’d ask if you had a dame,” Bucky slurred towards Tony.

Tony barked out a laugh. “I think my grandad wouldn’t have even asked that.”

Bucky waved his hand. “Answer, Ant. Is that why none of the girls who throw themselves at you can get any purchase?”

Tony sighed, knowing this conversation had been coming. “Yes and no.”

He was quiet for a long enough time that Bucky said. “Are we done then?”

“Do you?”

“Do I what,” Bucky replied.

“Do you have a dame?”

“Never wanted one,” Bucky replied easily. “Have had a few fellas, but no one permanent. This life makes it hard.”

Tony nodded sagely. Northern Ireland was not a particularly open and accepting place – on the whole – when it came to homosexuality. The friendliest people, the most gorgeous land, Tony loved everything about living there, but you couldn't deny the latent homophobia among a decent majority of its population. “You afraid to lose business?”

Bucky nodded, clearly impressed with how quickly the other man had sorted it out. “Steve and Tash both say to fuck ‘em, I get to be whoever I want, but I don’t really see a need. Safer places for a few nights are only a plane flight away and that’s more my speed these days. So, I’m quiet. Lotsa folks around here are. Mags, the one who runs the shop down in Armoy? We talk about it sometimes. Just doesn’t feel safe.”

“Safe?”

“It’s a big risk, coming out, anywhere you are. And it’s a bigger risk somewhere that’s uncomfortable in its own skin and only, what, ten years into this new world it’s trying to create? The folks who need to know know, so you do, too, and that’s that.”

“Well, if you ever want to make a splash, you let me know. I was good at splashes in a past life,” Tony took a long sip of his whiskey.

“Same past life you were a child prodigy in,” Bucky smirked.

Tony nodded. “That’s… yeah. For another time.”

“It’s been for another time for a few years now,” Bucky replied.

“And it’ll be that way for a few more,” Tony’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Happy New Year, Bucky. May the year bring more happiness than you deserve.”

And with that, Tony stumbled to his room and emphatically shut the door behind him.

Bucky had never quite felt so sorry for someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Northern Ireland is still a part of the world that struggles with equality for LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2008, its rates of reported homophobia were the highest in Western Europe. A lot of strides have been made since then - praise be - but same-sex marriage is still illegal, as are same-sex adoptions. 
> 
> It is the best little place, it really is, but it is not hard to find its broken parts. 
> 
> The next chapter is all this time from Pepper's perspective - so you'll see just how quick we can take down Obie. 
> 
> Thank you so, so, so much for your feedback on this weirdo little tale and please keep it coming. I love knowing what resonates with you!
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) or [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) for snipsnops and sass.


	7. Chapter 7

**After: Pepper ******

She had to be careful.

Years of watching Tony handle Howard, of watching Maria float through life, of watching Jarvis diplomatically deal with everything had taught her that much. If Obie was responsible for the crash (he was, she knew it) and if he knew where Tony was (he did, he just wouldn’t tell her) then she had to be careful.

After Tony disappeared, it took about six months to start breathing again, to come up with a plan, to start feeling like a functional human and not someone who was forced to live in a weird house made of jello and quicksand. But then, she hit the ground running.

Pepper finished at Westcove and headed to Penn. She got in to Harvard, but couldn’t face it, and Princeton felt to rural and she knew better than to try to marry Tony one day after going to Yale. She went on dates with a few men that Obie set her up with - I’m just trying to help you move on, Virginia - but spent most of her free time on one of two activities.

She had an extensive file of screenshots and hacked emails and files off of SI computers and from any of Obie’s personal devices she could get into. This required lots of reading all of Tony’s old textbooks about computers and then flirting with a computer science major or two, but it was all for the cause. She even dated one of them for a while - a guy named Boris - who taught her how to set up tracking on Obie’s phone, car, and all SI planes so that she’d be alerted whenever he left the country.

Her other project was her only tether to reality. 

_“You want us to write him letters?” Rhodey said quizzically._

_“I want him to have a record of our lives for when he gets back,” Pepper replied._

_“But Pep -”_

_“Rhodey, if you are going to bring that ‘what if’ nonsense into my space, you gotta leave. I know that he’s not dead and whoever he is when he comes back, he’ll need our help. So, do you want to do this with me or not?”_

_“Is this going to be like the fucking sisterhood of those pants?”_

_“The book with the jeans?” She shot Rhodey a long side eye._

_“Tarsha,” Rhodey said, a slight blush highlighting his cheeks when he named his current girlfriend._

_“Sure,” Pepper said with a smirk. “And ish? We’re not going to mail it back and forth, I’m just saying you keep a notebook and I’ll keep one and we’ll just put them in a lockbox when they get filled.”_

By the time she started at Wharton in the Fall of 2007, Pepper had filled thirty-four composition books and Rhodey had fifteen. If she flipped back through them and let the opening lines catch her eye, she’d see her life spilled out on the page.

_July 23, 2003_

_T -_

_I made it through an entire viewing of Star Wars without crying, which is the first time I’ve done that since you went away._

_August 14, 2004_

_T -_

_I hacked the entire system today, you’d be so proud. The firewall caught me in about thirty seconds, but Dave said that was good for my first time._

_January 22, 2005_

_Babe -_

_Obie set me up on another date last night and it was awful. I mean, we went to Morimoto’s so it was also wonderful, and the guy wasn’t a rapist or anything, not like the vibes I got off of the guy from last summer, but he’s just not you and until Obie hands me your body, I will never believe him that you’re lost to me._

_May 1, 2006_

_Love -_

_Rhodey broke up with Marissa - THANK GOD - so I think it’s just him and me for the Vineyard this year. He’s got a bit of annual leave stored up - I’m sure he’s explained this to you in his book - and I want to redecorate the house._

_I still can’t believe your parents left everything to me if something happened to you, but I’m grateful. This way strangers never got their hands on your things._

_But I think I might do the whole Vineyard house in a Princess Bride theme just to make you mad enough to come home._

The months of November and December of 2007 were a notebook entirely by themselves.

_November 4, 2007_

_Anthony, the worst has happened._

_Ana died in her sleep last night. Our Ana is gone and I can’t fathom how I’m supposed to do this life without both her and you._

_December 15, 2007_

_Just as Rhodey and I thought, babe, Jarvis died last night. I knew he’d never hang on without her for long, but I’d really hoped we’d get through the holiday._

_December 16, 2007_

_Anthony, this is enough now. Whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, whatever island you’ve purchased for yourself, this is fucking enough I am TIRED and I want you home. I want your hands in my hair and your teeth on my nipples and your breath in my ear and I AM TIRED of doing this without you would you please come home._

_December 20, 2007_

_Obie just told me the only place for me at Stark Industries - our company, yours and mine - is as his PA. I don’t care if I don’t have enough evidence, I’m going to the board, I swear._

_December 24, 2007_

_Rhodey talked me out of it, babe, don’t worry. But, do you remember that reporter lady who used to come every year when we were kids? She’s at the WSJ now and I think she does whistleblowing. In the new year, I’m calling her._

_________________________________

“Thank you for meeting with me,” Pepper said in a low voice as she glanced around the coffee shop on Nassau Street.

“Well, Ms. Potts, I can’t say I’m not intrigued as to why Tony Stark’s ex-girlfriend, who goes to grad school in Philly, wants to meet with me in Princeton,” Laura replied, taking a sip of her coffee. “Can I record this?”

Pepper winced. “Not this time, but I’ll explain why.”

True to her letter to Tony, on January 2nd, Pepper had driven out of the city to find a payphone to place a call to the _Wall Street Journal_ ’s confidential tip line. She said she had possible information on espionage at Stark Industries and asked Laura DeAngelis meet her at the Starbucks in Princeton on January 5th at 10am where she’d be the woman in the red beanie hat.

Pepper swiped the hat off her head - she wasn’t a recognizable face in the sleepy college town - and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. A breath of pain caught her as a memory flashed.

_“Oh, that’s your you mean business hair,” Tony teased her as she pulled her hair back._

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Like Mrs. Potato Head packs Mr. Potato Head’s angry eyes? I’ll always make sure you pack your productive hair.”_

“Like I said, thanks for meeting with me,” Pepper repeated, “and I hope I’m not a waste of your time, but I’m convinced that Obadiah Stane arranged for the accident that killed Howard and Maria and also for Tony to disappear and I have some evidence.”

Without missing a beat, the reporter responded. “Did you bring it with you?”

Pepper nodded. “I made you full set of copies, they’re on a thumb drive in my purse, if you’ll agree to help me. I’m not afraid of legal repercussions or anything, but I am afraid of my uncle. He will kill me if I’m right. He will.”

Pepper’s tone had gotten slightly frantic towards the end of her statement and an empathetic look crossed Laura’s face. “Ms. Potts -”

“Pepper.”

“Pepper,” Laura smiled. “I have been reporting on American businesses since you were born. Literally, I got my promotion to the economics desk right when you were christened because that was the last thing I covered for the society pages. I have no doubt that your uncle would kill you if you stood in his way.”

“So you believe me?”

“Yes,” Laura said simply. “Because that makes more sense than the idea that Tony Stark would have intentionally killed his parents and then disappeared, or that Tony is hiding somewhere in the world without you, or that Howard bought Tony a faulty car, or any of the other four thousand conspiracy theories I’ve heard over the last few years.

“The last statement Tony ever gave to the press was that he was thrilled to start working full time and spend all of his free time with the love of his life. He had no documented history of mental illness, beyond being a terrifyingly intense genius, and was poised - according to his professors at MIT - to revolutionize our understanding of robotics. If someone didn’t manipulate him into disappearing, then I don’t buy any of this.”

Pepper let a soft smile tease her lips and let a fraction of her guard down. Besides Ana, Jarvis, and Rhodey, she hadn’t spoken honestly to someone in nearly seven years. The older woman seemed too good to be true, but Pepper had hit the point where she had to take big risks.

“I need you to help me find him, find Tony,” Pepper said, “and in exchange, I’ll give you enough insider info to win a Pulitzer on the destruction of Obadiah Stane.”

Laura looked calculatingly at Pepper. “And what if Tony can’t be found?”

“I’ve looked for him for seven years without any help. Give me three and if we still can’t get anywhere, then I’ll renegotiate terms.”

“You understand that SI currently has a majority share in the _Journal_ , right?”

Pepper nodded. “So, first I need to buy it, which is going to take some time so it’s quiet, and I need to get Obie to believe it’s not super credible any more, without actually destroying the paper, so this is a delicate balance.

“But here’s a piece of things we never told anyone, Tony and I are engaged. We got engaged the night before he disappeared because we’ve been betrothed to each other since I was two. There is no way he left me or stayed away this long willingly. No way. But that also means I have control over his personal assets, and everything his parents left to both of us.”

Laura blinked a few times. “The entire Stark family estate. Yours?”

Pepper nodded.

“So you buy the paper, personally, and then I can go after Stane,” Laura summarized. “Meanwhile, you and I scour the world for the missing heir.”

Pepper nodded again.

“And the first girl you and Tony have together, you name her Laura,” the other woman smirked.

Pepper smiled. “Deal.”

______________________________

**April 2010**

Pepper was grateful that Laura was patient and methodical. They called each other Hermione and Minerva in all their correspondence, and spent the better part of 2007 and 2008 constructing a timeline for Tony. They knew he went to Greenland and then Switzerland and could trace the rest of his movements up to when he crossed the Scottish border in 2003.

Which is when all the tracking data Pepper had gathered on Obie had him in Aberdeen for a weekend, so Laura and Pepper were prepared to accept as fact that Obie met with Tony that weekend.

There was no more border crossings after that, but there were notices from various U.K. government agencies for hits on his passport from 2003 through 2007. When the women combined that, however, with some of the facts they gleaned from the file, Pepper realized that whatever Obie had told Tony when Obie went to Scotland in 2003 made Tony want to make sure Obie couldn’t find Tony again.

There were, for example, seventeen hundred Anthony Martinellis registered on Italian passports working outside Italy, in the E.U., and seven of them in Wales, and one of those seven shared an address with the guy who supposedly lived in Aberdeen. When Pepper stripped a few IP addresses and poked around a little bit more, she discovered that there were actually only two Anthony Martinellis living in Wales and only one of them was born in Italy.

_“I mean, if he built robots, I can’t imagine that creating identities is that much of a challenge for him,” Laura replied one night over pizza at Pepper’s house._

_“He used to fuck around in MIT’s records for fun,” Pepper laughed. “At one point, he had me getting scholarship money for a school I didn’t even attend! If he wanted to trick the U.K. into thinking he’s there but he’s not really, or the other way around, he can.”_

_Pepper sighed thoughtfully. “Which means he is exactly where he wants to be, or thinks he has to be, and I can’t decide which one tears me in half faster.”_

While she was playing Nancy Drew in her off hours, Pepper spent her days as Obie’s PA. She was, of course, _miserable_ , but she could not risk not keeping a close eye on him. Especially because he was destroying Tony’s legacy.

Starting in about 2003, Obie shifted the company’s focus entirely to weapons production. The problem with that was that he ran out of finished plans that Howard and Tony had sketched somewhere around 2005 and started using faulty prototypes. Where the Stark name had once stood for unmatched quality, it now stood for quick and cheap. Pepper knew that Howard was rolling in his grave.

On April 20, 2010, Pepper purchased the final shares she needed to have a controlling ownership stake in the paper. Upon getting the call from her lawyer, she closed all the curtains in her apartment, turned off her phone and cried for the first time in several years. A few hours later, she texted Laura that phase one was complete and that she was taking a vacation.

_Laura: Good. Get the fuck out of here. Where are you going?_

Pepper fingered the last few pages of her Tony journal, where she was remembering with him all of the adventures they had planned to take together.

_Pepper: There’s an island off the coast of Northern Ireland that has a huge flock of puffins. Tony’s mom had always wanted to go. So I think I’m going to go see some puffins._

_Laura: That sounds perfect. I’ll get my drafts cleaned up so we’re ready to go to my editor when you get back._

______________________________

It took nearly 24 hours of travel to reach the place with the puffins, which was actually called Rathlin Island. She’d flown from New York to London and then to Belfast and then took a train to a place called Coleraine, and then someone told her to take a bus or a taxi to Ballycastle where she could get the ferry to Rathlin and everyone assured her it would be worth it.

As she stood on the ferry and felt the sea air whip her hair around her face and saw the signal go out on her cell phone, she took a deep breath and agreed with them. She then told herself that she was going to spend the next three days finding calm. She’d booked four nights in a B&B, had loaded her Kindle full of happily ever afters, and had promised both Rhodey and Laura that she’d spend as much time as possible reading and sleeping.

The lovely B&B owner met her at the ferry and directed Pepper to head to the pub up the way for dinner - it was evidently her only option - and that they’d talk about groceries in the morning. Pepper was instantly charmed by the easy manner of the other woman and the way her own soul just seemed to settle as she wandered the gravel path from the ferry to the pub.

She opened the door tentatively to a one room structure, with a bar at one end and a pool table at the other. Benches and booths were scattered along the walls and a television broadcast a soccer - football, she corrected herself - match. One of the booths held a group of folks close to her age, but she wasn’t quite awake enough to make small talk. She ordered a Guinness - when in Rome - from the barkeep, who told her to find a seat and he’d bring it to her when it was done settling. She added an order of cottage pie to the tab and was getting out her wallet when she heard a laugh.

_That was Tony’s laugh._

Her heart stopped. She knew that laugh, she knew that laugh like she knew her own soul. Her tab forgotten, she walked quickly towards it as though a tractor beam was drawing her. There he was, her Tony, a few years older and with a truly unfortunate mop of facial hair but he was hers and he was alive. “Tony?”

His head shot up and the panic that flitted through his eyes cut her soul. He opened his mouth briefly before the guy with the manbun next to him said in an accent straight out of Brooklyn Central Casting, “No, sorry lady, this fucker’s name is Ant.”

“Ant,” she choked out. “Ant as in short for Anthony?”

He still wasn’t speaking and this was officially the longest he’d ever been in her presence without doing so.

Thankfully, the rest of the bar was happy to supply information to her confusion. Within seconds, she learned he was ‘Ant Martinelli’ and he was from New York but he was their mechanic and she must have him mixed up with someone else and where was she staying because she was about to miss the last ferry back to the mainland for the night. None of this was said in any sort of threatening manner, if anything, there appeared to be a concern about protecting her from this Ant.

“I’m over at Arkhell House,” she said, finally finding her voice to speak to nearly the entire pub, but focusing on this table full of people sitting next to the man she had been in love with since she knew what that was. “I’m on vacation for a few days, over from New York, and an old friend of mine used to talk about puffins. His mother loved them. Thought I’d see them for myself.”

He would not look at her, focusing instead on picking the label off his bottle of cider. _Cider. Tony Stark in a pub off the coast of Northern Ireland drinking a Magner’s Cider. Sure. This was normal life._

“Well, good news for you, fellow New Yorker,” the blond man across the table from Tony volunteered. “We happen to be some of the best puffin guides on Rathlin and we have a tour heading out tomorrow first thing. Join us? We can pick you up around 7am?”

Pepper found herself nodding and forced her eyes away from Tony. Being in this room with him when he would not look at her was starting to make it hard to breathe. “I was actually coming in here to see if anyone could tell me about a good tour, so that sounds amazing. I’ll be outside at 7, and now I’m going to head back to the B&B for a cup of tea. Jet lag.”

“I’m Steve Rogers,” the blond man stood up and offered his hand. Pointing to Man Bun, “that’s James Barnes”, and to the redhead he’d been sitting next to, “and my wife Natasha, and you met Ant.”

Pepper grabbed Steve’s hand, noting its firmness and the callouses that made her think of how Tony’s used to feel. “I’m Virginia Potts, but my friends call me Pepper. Or, sometimes, even Pep.”

A small wave of confusion passed over Steve’s face at her bizarrely worded overshare. “Well, Pepper, then?”

She nodded. “Pepper.”

“Sleep well, Pepper,” Steve smiled and Pepper found herself thinking that Natasha was a lucky woman to wake up every morning to that face, “and we’ll see you in the morning. Órfhlaith is the caretaker over at your B&B. I’ll shoot her a text to let her know you’ll be leaving early and she’ll make sure your breakfast is ready before we head. See you then!”

What is happening, Pepper’s brain whirred and she realized she left the pub without dinner but could not possibly bring herself to walk back into that place with that man wearing Tony’s face because it couldn’t be him, could it? _I am going to vomit and cry and I’m not sure in what order_. A voice called after her, and Man Bun - _James?_ \- was chasing after her.

“Pepper, right? You forgot your dinner.”

Pepper stopped and faced the man fully, graciously accepting the plate wrapped in cellophane. _Interesting take out container_. “Thank you, it was James, wasn’t it? I think I’m too tired to eat, but I’ll put it in the fridge. Do you know how much I owe?”

James waved his hand. “Bit of a shock back there, you can settle later. Seamus don’t mind.”

Pepper nodded and started to bid the other man good evening when he spoke. “Did he really graduate from MIT at 17?”

Pepper blinked a few times. “Yes, with honors. Double major.”

“Well, fuck,” the other man swore under his breath. “Of all the stories he told, we thought for sure that one was one of the lies.” James chuckled and looked up at the sky for a minute. “Well, I won’t keep you from your shower and your bed, which I know I always need after a full day of travel. We’ll see you tomorrow for the tour.”

“Will… will Ant be-” Pepper couldn’t finish the question.

“He’s not one of the guides,” James said softly, “but he can be if you want.”

Pepper’s eyes filled with hot tears she could not afford to spill in front of this stranger with the kind eyes, who seemed to believe that Ant was Tony. “No, I don’t want to pull him away from his normal duties,” she managed. “Well, goodnight James.”

She missed the soulful look he gave her, heavy with pity, as she skittered down the path towards her B&B.

“Well, pal, that past you wanted to keep hidden seems to have washed up on shore,” Bucky said out loud as he turned and walked back to the pub. “Can’t say I’m all that sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point in history, Murdoch owned the _Wall Street Journal_ , but, you know, author privilege. Also - all the letters that Pepper wrote, I only showed the first line, but I'm sure you can imagine that they went on for pages. 
> 
> Thanks so much for all of your engagement with this story - comments definitely make me write faster, so I'm glad to get them!


	8. Chapter 8

Just as Maria Stark had always predicted, the puffins were lovely. 

As a bonus for Pepper, the company on the tour was as well. There were a few other tourists, but the group was small. Steve took over most of the lecturing and he was a passionate and gifted speaker. Natasha was the driver and time-keeper - Pepper saw her point to her watch several times with a quirked eyebrow at Steve, who would then blush, and it was so intimate, so close to what she and Tony used to have that she spent a chunk of the tour fighting back tears. 

She had been surprised to find James plastered to her side, until she realized that he had appointed himself her protector from questioning. 

Like, when one of the other tourists asked what she did for a living, James interrupted and said he wanted to show her something. 

Or, when Steve caught her on the tea break and started to tell her a story about Ant, and James suddenly needed Steve to look at something in the car. 

“I can see what you’re doing, James,” Pepper said to the man quietly when the tour was finally over and they were on their way back to the pub. Pepper quickly learned that Seamus’ pub was the center of the wheel around which Rathlin rotated. 

“Can’t say I know what you’re talking about, Miss Pepper,” James replied. “Also, my friends call me Bucky.”

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow in his direction. 

“Is that for saying we’re friends or for the name, because I can see it going either way.”

Pepper laughed and James - _Bucky_ \- threw on a grin that Pepper knew had the potential to melt any set of underwear in a five mile radius if he wanted it to. “Let’s start with the name.”

“Childhood thing,” Bucky replied with a shrug, “and then the Irish are big on nicknames, so it all kind of worked. There are probably seventeen James’ in that village over there -” he gestured to the mainland, “just like there are a lot of Anthony’s. But there’s only one Bucky and only one Ant. So, it works.”

“Are you two -”

Bucky looked at her with kind eyes that bordered on pity and she nearly lost control of the tears that threatened. “You got plans after this?”

“After the tour? No.”

“I have some truly unremarkable chicken curry I was going to make for lunch. Care to join?”

Pepper bit her lip. “Well, with an offer like that.”

When the tour was over, Pepper followed Bucky down a winding path and up a slight hill. The view from his front door was breathtaking. 

“I wouldn’t get any work done, I don’t think,” Pepper commented as he got her the tea she requested and they settled into his living room. “I would just stare at the sea.”

“There are days I do that,” Bucky admitted. “My days off are usually at lot of sitting right where you are and listening to audiobooks while just… staring.”

The pair fell into a comfortable silence for a few seconds before Bucky continued. “I’m the only one here who has any idea who he is. Which means I’m the only one who knows about you two.”

Pepper wasn’t sure if that made her thrilled or heartbroken. 

“We’ve known him for about five years,” Bucky continued. “And we’ve all always known there was a girl. Whenever we tried to set him up with anyone, he’d decline. I actually hit on him a few times myself, and at first I thought he was just super straight, despite the flirting, but then he told me that there was a woman and that no matter how damn gorgeous I was, I wasn’t her. But he would never tell me her name.”

“Virginia Potts,” Pepper said. “It’s a pleasure.”

He smiled. “So, we have the internet here, too, and I did some research last night, and I think I know some things, but I’m a big fan of not believing everything I read. Do you want me to tell you about him and who he is to us? Because I would really like to hear who he is to you.”

“Well, yes to your first question, and the answer to your second is simple. He is the love of my life and the rightful heir to the Stark family fortune and CEO of Stark Industries. I’ve spent the last nine years trying to find him and bring him home,” Pepper said simply. “But, you first, please.”

And Bucky obliged. As he made them lunch, he told her of that first night in the pub, about the first few days when Ant couldn’t understand the slang all the lads at the docks used, but how by the second week of work he had all of it down perfectly. She heard about the wonders he built with his hands, and the time that Bucky had found Ant’s server room and that was the longest they hadn’t spoken. 

“Listen, we’ve always known he was a genius of some sort or another. The things he can build and fix, people come from hours around to have him fix their cars or their bikes or their kids’ computers. He builds phones for fun and has two robots for pets that he built out of scraps he bartered for. He’s not normal, Pepper,” Bucky laughed, “and he’s the only one who don’t know it.”

And then it was Pepper’s turn. As Bucky had been talking, she’d been weighing what she’d tell him. As he relayed story after story, with tenderness and humor, she realized that Bucky was Tony’s family. This is the man who had held Tony together when she couldn’t, the one who loved him when she’d been too far away. And for that, he got the truth. 

Over plates of truly mediocre chicken curry with rice, she told him of the betrothal - _you are fucking kidding me, were your parents born in the 1800s or sommin’?_ \- and of Howard’s abuse. She told him of Obie and her suspicions, of how she’d been working with Laura, and of all the stories of her, Tony, and Rhodey growing up. 

“Well, I wish I had known your Tony,” Bucky replied.

“Oh, I’m not sure you do,” Pepper said with a sad laugh. “He was too much all of the time in some ways. Too bright, too smart, too… it took all I had to wrangle a piece of him to the ground, to make sure he didn’t fly off on me. And then he did.”

“Pepper,” Bucky leaned towards her. “Let me tell you something. That man over there is my best friend and I know this version of him as best as anyone can and he is not here because he wants to be. I think he likes this life, and I know he loves those of us in it, and he is a great member of our team and of the village and all of that, but he does not belong here. He never has. He’s a ghost with skin and I never knew why and now that I do, I promise you, I will make him go home.”

Pepper shook his head. “Well, you can certainly try, Bucky, but let me tell you something. No one has ever made Tony Stark do anything he didn’t want to do. He may have been manipulated into it, had a lot of other choices taken away, be made to feel like it was his only option, but he is a stubborn asshat and once he decides on a course of action, it is his course.”

Silence descended again and he silently headed towards the kitchen. She heard the electric kettle flip on and a few moments later, he was back with more tea. 

“I can add some whiskey to it, if you need,” he smiled. 

“I’m going to find him, I think, and try to talk to him. If he’s as intransigent as I think he’s going to be, I’m going to get a ferry back over and spend the rest of my vacation somewhere else.”

“I’d say Belfast, but I’m guessing you want more distance, so I’ll say that Galway is lovely.”

“Noted,” Pepper smiled. 

They made small talk for a while after that. Bucky asked some questions about Pepper’s work, she showed him some of the art she’d been collecting as part of the Stark estate. He told her more stories of his life, which she noticed didn’t include Tony, and she was grateful. 

Finally, it was time. 

“Do you know where he’d be about now?” Pepper asked. 

Bucky nodded. “He’ll be in his shop, it’s around the corner. I’m sure he knows you’re here and I’d imagine he’s expecting you.”

She took a deep breath and started to clean up. Bucky told her to leave everything where it was and to come back if she needed anything. With a final hug that was imbued with knowing, she set off down the path. 

She followed the familiar sounds of whirring and welding and found Tony curved around an engine. The setting was wrong, his hair was wrong, and she noticed that he wasn’t chattering away to anyone, but the music was right and the smells were, too, and her heart clenched. 

She arranged herself on a bench not far from where he was and waited for the blow torch to shut off. 

“Anthony,” she started. 

“Well, I was wondering how long that would take,” Tony said, with a quiet resignation she didn’t care for. 

“A decade of silence and that’s what I get?”

“Well, you’re the one who showed up on my rock. I didn’t invite you.”

_This_ , Pepper thought, _is what he used to do when someone got too close to something painful. If I’m painful, then he misses me, I can work with that._

“I didn’t expect to have my first vacation in ten years infected by the man whose disappearance has fucked that last decade.”

“Oh, please,” he took off the mask and glared at her. “I know what the documents said. You’re the richest woman in America, probably the world if you’ve played your cards right. I’m sure you and Blair or Tristan or whoever you’ve fucked off with are quite happy.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Your husband, you had to get married by the time you were 25 and we’re far past that, so -”

“I had you get married to _you_ , numbnuts!” Pepper had planned on being calm. She should have known better. “The contract said I had to get married to you, and then you fucked off to God knows where for God knows what reason, so I have all of the money but none of the power because _Obie_ runs everything now and everything is awful and you need to come home and _fix it_. Because that is what you do best, what the man I love does best, he fixes thing. Well, Jarvis is gone and so is Ana, and Rhodey is super important all of the time and I’m alone and exhausted and I need you to come home and fix it, Anthony.”

Her voice rose as she talked, and the tears came unbidden. By the time she uttered his name, she was nearly shaking. 

“Virginia, I am home,” he replied calmly. “That boy you knew, he’s gone. I’m sorry we didn’t get married, it’s sounds like with Howard gone that contract is null and void, so go home, find a husband, make babies, and leave me alone.”

The steel in his voice shocked her far more than his words did. Self-loathing Tony was a version she was well familiar with. This one who spoke to her like she was anyone else?

“Anthony, you seem to be harboring under the notion that I give a fuck about what you think you know because you know nothing. You know nothing of the mess you created when you fled, nothing of the life I’ve been forced to live in your absence, and evidently nothing of me if you think I could, God, you think I could actually marry anyone else? You insufferable asswipe, you are and always will be it for me, so fuck you if you’ve moved on but I can’t. You are sewn into my soul and you have been since before I knew about the contract. Well before. I have loved you since I could breathe, that’s how I knew you weren’t dead, because I knew I would have known.

“What I never imagined is that you had the option to come home to me and you chose not to. You chose a life you weren’t meant for instead of me and that fucking hurts, Tony, it does, but I’m not here for me. I’m here for you.”

“Pepper-“

“Nope, I’m on a roll, dickweed and I’m not sure you get to use that name right now, so shut the fuck up,” she growled the last bit and the part of him that still knew her more than his own breath knew to zip his lips.

“Obie has destroyed SI. Your weapons kill people now, Tony, not because they’re supposed to, but because he builds them cheap and then sells them without the right parts so that people keep buying them. All of the good men we knew on the board growing up are gone – dead or pushed out – and he’s replaced them all. If we had gotten married, I would have had a seat on the board, but since we didn’t, he only lets me be a PA. All those plans we had when you were at MIT? They’re atrophying in a drawer because you left, you left, you LEFT ME,” she finished on a roar, “and you LEFT YOUR FAMILY.”

“I KILLED MY FAMILY,” he roared back.

She shook her head in disbelief. “It was an accident, Tony, an accident. The car –“

He cut her off. “My turn now, Virginia.” Something in her twisted that he respected her small boundary with the names. “My life is great now and I’m sorry that Obie isn’t a great CEO, but I’m not a Stark, so it’s not my weapons, and it’s not my name, and it’s not, it’s just not. I did what I had to do back then, because otherwise I’d be in jail. Vehicular manslaughter, that’s what I would have gone away for-“

She held up her hand, a look of bewilderment on her face. “Hold on,” she pawed for her phone and scrolled through a series of files. “Who told you vehicular manslaughter?”

He blinked. “Obie, right after he found us, right after we realized that Howard and Mom were gone.”

She shook her head in amazement and kept scrolling, muttering ‘son of a bitch’ under her breath. Finally, she handed the phone to him.

“For years now, I’ve know he was a disgusting cretin. I have nearly enough evidence to go to the board with, to get him ousted, I think, but I knew they’d want to know where you were since my role in the company is tied to you, and, besides, where you were was the piece of the puzzle I couldn’t fit, but there was also this one piece of search history I found digging through the servers, the one time he didn’t wipe everything, that never made any sense.”

“You dig through servers?”

“That’s what, fine, Tony, yes, I read all the books you left behind and I’ve done a few classes and I can hack, program, test, write code, the whole nine. It’s not like being Obie’s PA is taxing, I had to do something with my time.”

The wall he erected around his heart to keep his past out took a bit hit with that one. He could see his Pepper in his mind’s eye, blowing her hair out of her face as she frantically typed and puzzled her way through complicated coding that would make most humans cry. God, what he’d give to see that for real.

“Anyway, look,” she thrust the phone into his hands. “It’s the New York State code of law, the page on manslaughter. I could not square this circle, especially since, for some reason, Obie never got you declared as dead. We never had a funeral. I thought maybe he’d done something to the car and was making sure he covered his ass, but then-“

“So where does everyone think I am?”

“Obie told everyone you had a breakdown at the death of your beloved parents-“

Tony snorted.

“-and removed yourself from public life and are currently living a life of anonymous community service. The company asked that you be left alone.”

“Was I?”

“The first few years were a lot of ‘Tony Stark’ sightings and you still pop up in tabloids, but 9/11 happened pretty quick after you disappeared and then nothing else mattered.”

“So what are you saying here, Virginia?”

She paused. “Was it Obie who told you that you killed them?”

“I did kill them.”

“Was it Obie?”

He nodded. “Yeah, and he gave me the way to get out of the country so that I wouldn’t go to jail and I wouldn’t drag you down with me. He showed me the part of the contract that said if I ever committed a crime, you’d be cut off completely, and I couldn’t risk that, but I explained this all in the letter-“

“What letter?”

He blinked. “The note I wrote you on the way to the airport, and then the ones I sent from Greenland and -“ she could see the light of genius click, “son of a bitch never gave them to you, did he.”

“No, Tony.”

“I’ve been outplayed,” he whispered.

“We all have,” she replied, taking her phone back.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before he looked over at her. “What do you want me to do with this?”

“What do you mean, what do I want? I want you to come home. I want you to be Tony Stark again, I want to get married, and have all those kids we talked about, and the dogs, and I'll even bend on the llamas or whatever, and take over the company, and fix it, but mostly I just want you to come home,” she breathed.

“I’m not Tony Stark any more,” he replied. “I haven’t been for ten years, Virginia, I’m not sure I even remember how.”

“Well,” she blinked a few times. “We’ll figure it out, but first you need to come home.”

“See,” his voice sounded sad and her heart stopped. “That’s part of the problem. I am home. This is my home now and I’m really sorry that Obie did all of this, and I’m sure you can find someone to let you out of all the contracts, I’ll even sign something, and God, I’d love it if you would move here, too, you and Nat would be best friends in no time, but I am home.”

The tears hit her eyes before she could stop them. “I used to be your home.”

“I’m sorry, Virginia, but that was another life.”

They sat for a few moments as Pepper gathered herself. “Well, then I guess this is goodbye.” She flipped back into Professional Pepper mode and schooled her face into casual indifference. “Have I missed the last ferry?”

He shook his head. “No, but the next one means you’ll miss the last bus from Ballycastle to Coleraine.”

“Well, then I need a drink and some food, so if you could give me about an hour to get both at the pub, then I’ll –“

“No, I’ll stay here,” Tony replied. “I won’t bother you-“

“Okay, fine. It was nice seeing you again, I’m glad to know you’re safe and happy,” she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Goodbye, Anthony Edward.”

She climbed off the rock they had been sitting on and he watched her make her way back to the village and out of his life once more.

_________ 

From Tony’s - _Ant’s_ \- place, she headed back for Bucky’s. She found him in his living room, right where she left him.

“So, Pepper, what’s the plan?”

“He says he’s home,” Pepper replied. “I gave him a plan, he rejected it, so I’m going home.”

He blinked a few times. “Just like that? Like, what, ten years of searching, and you find him and you just go home?”

“Well, Bucky,” she smiled sadly. “There’s this whole thing called individual agency. If he doesn’t want to leave, I can’t make him. So I’m on the ferry first thing and he’s staying here. I’m glad,” her voice caught slightly, “I’m glad to know he’s found family here, I’m glad to have met you and Nat and Steve, you all seem wonderful and I’m glad. So I leave him in your capable hands.”

Well,” he grabbed an envelope from the coffee table in front of him. “If you ever need to do a proof of life check, here’s my number.”

Pepper smiled and took both the envelope and the pen. Scribbling quickly, she tore the envelope in half. “Here’s mine, and my personal email if you ever need anything. I mean it, anything, just email.”

“I could use some more toilet roll,” Bucky said smiling.

“I’ll have some air dropped tomorrow,” Pepper said, returning the smile.

“It was great to meet you, Pepper Potts.”

“You too, James Barnes. Take care of our boy, will you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

_________ 

Bucky waited about two days after Pepper got on the ferry to head into Tony’s barn. “You are a fucking idiot.”

“Good morning to you too, Grumpy Cat.”

“I don’t give a shit about the company, you don’t want to control eighty billion in assets who the fuck am I to judge, but you let Pepper get back on the fucking boat?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh fuck OFF, Anthony,” Bucky roared. “I know I’m not you, but I’m not fucking stupid, and I know she’s the girl you always talk about, the one you pretend is five different girls so we are thrown off a scent or whatever, but we all know it was one, and now that I know it was Pepper fucking Potts, you have got to be kidding me with this bullshit. You love her. You have loved her since I met you and I don’t think you’re constitutionally capable of loving anyone else, you’ve proven that time and time again-“

“James-“

“Oh, don’t James me, you coward. Go. Get. Your. Girl.”

“She’s NOT my girl,” Tony yelled back. “She hasn’t been for ten years and even then she was only my girl because of a fucking contract, did she tell you that? Did that make it into your internet searches? That our parents betrothed us when we were children like some lord and lady of the manor? We were all we had, the two of us, and that’s not love.”

Bucky blinked a few times. “Jesus Christ, are you an idiot. Fine. Stay here and settle for this life you’ve crashed into instead of the one you could create. See if I care.”

Bucky stomped out of the barn and left Tony to his tools and his memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mostly people yelling at Tony, I know. The next one will be his reactions and then probably some more yelling, because Rhodey has some feelings he needs to let Tony know about. Our boy has his head up his ass and he needs some help removing it, but he'll get there. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and for the comments (etc.) They mean the world!


	9. Chapter 9

James Rhodes fingered his passport as he stepped forward in line. It had been a long time since he’d flown commercial, but that phone call from Pepper hadn’t allowed for the necessary time to arrange a hitchhike on a military transport. 

_“Rhodey, I found him, I fucking found him,” her voice was bright with tears. “He’s in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland and goes by the name Ant Martinelli.”_

_“Like Maria’s estate? That one in wherever with the grapes?”_

_“Sure, yes, I can’t remember, but anyway, he’s alive, and I just wanted you to know.”_

_There was something in her tone that made him pause. “So he’s coming home?”_

_Her laugh sounded bitter to his ears. “Oh, he informed me that he is home and that he has no interest in being Tony Stark again, oh and get this, he left because Obie told him that he killed his parents and he’d go to jail for it.”_

_Rhodey’s jaw dropped so low he may have dislocated it._

_“Rhodey, are you there?”_

_“Yeah, sorry, what the fuck?”_

As the rest of the story spilled out from Pepper over the next several hours, he made a few rapid decisions. One, he was going to be on the next flight to Dublin if it killed him. Two, he was going to kill Obadiah Stane with his bare hands. Three, he was going to spend the rest of his life making Pepper’s easier, somehow. 

Which is how he found himself in passport control in Dublin International. When it was his turn, he told the friendly agent that he was heading north - and got that song that Pepper loved by those brothers stuck in his head - and made his way to the rental car place. He acquired something that resembled a clown car, plugged in the address Pepper had given him, and made his way towards his past.

_______________

“I have told Donnie a thousand times to just leave the packages,” Tony muttered to Butterfingers, one of his workshop bots, as the doorbell rang in his house on the mainland. As soon as Pepper had left the island, he’d followed on the next ferry - he couldn't look at his barn without seeing her and that simply wouldn’t do.

He wrenched open the door to find another face he never thought he’d see. “Rhodey?”

“Hi, Tones, what’s this about you being a coward?”

“Me being a what?” Tony was too shocked for his brain to work at its normal speed. 

“Pepper, she called me, told me that she told you the truth and you told her that you don’t love her anymore, and there’s only two options if that’s true. One, Pepper misunderstood you, which is possible, because I’m sure emotions were high. Two, you’re a fucking coward. Which one was it, Tones?”

“Right, well, before you go screaming the corporate history to the whole village, why don’t you come in,” Tony sighed and gestured for Rhodey to enter the house. “Living room is the door on the left, you want tea?”

“No, Tony, I want answers.”

“Well, I want tea, so your answers can wait for the kettle to boil.” Tony’s hands were shaking - not that he’d let Rhodey see that - as he padded into the kitchen and flipped the water to boil. He fished out his phone. 

_Ant: She must have called our other best friend._

_Bucky: Oh, you’re talking to me now?_

_Ant: He’s here._

_Bucky: Who’s where?_

_Ant: Rhodey. Our third musketeer. Pepper must have called him. He’s in my front room._

_Bucky: Cool._

_Ant: Cool? That’s what you have for me?_

_Bucky: Well, pal, considering that I didn’t know either of these people were real a week ago, I’m not sure what other response you want me to have._

Tony looked up to hear the whistle of the kettle. He deserved that. 

_Ant: Can you come here in a few hours? Just let yourself in, whatever is happening._

_Bucky: Yeah, I’ll use Steve’s boat._

_Bucky: Ant, whatever you’re running from, it’s okay to stop._

Tony saw the tell-tale sign of messages being typed and deleted as three dots appeared and disappeared on his screen a few times. Finally, just as Tony’s tea was done steeping, he got another text. 

_Bucky: She loves you still, pal, and my guess is he does to. If they love Tony, they’ll love Ant. Same for all of us. Just stop running._

Tony shoved his phone back into his pocket, counting the ways in his head that Bucky was wrong. 

He found Rhodey standing by the fireplace, looking at the pictures Tony had framed on the mantel. 

“You know,” Rhodey said without turning around. “I coulda sent you the one of you and Pep getting engaged. You left before I got a chance to give it to you anyway. Got it back from the photo place the day after Howard’s funeral.”

“I don’t think it would have matched the decor,” Tony said. 

Rhodey was silent for a beat before he turned around and faced Tony. “I have things to say and questions to ask. You got a few minutes?”

Tony, knowing that he owed Rhodey at least that much, nodded and gestured to the couches. After a few awkward remarks, and a question about how Rhodey’s trip was, the older man dove in. 

“Look, Tones, Obie is evil. That’s what this comes down to. I’ve got a bunch of Pep’s research here with me, I wanted to bring you what she’s given the _Wall Street Journal_ because now that we know where you are, I figure you deserve to read about your company before everyone else does, but Obie’s an evil fucker and he’s going down. Your girl, our girl, she’s better than both of us, and she got him.”

Tony was so confused. “Back up, what the hell does the _Journal_ have to do with this? Does SI still own it?”

“Wait,” Rhodey held up a hand. “What did Pep tell you about why she was in Ireland?”

“Northern Ireland,” Tony corrected on reflex, and continued, “she didn’t.”

Rhodey blinked. “Okay, let me back up.”

For the next hour and a bit, Rhodey unpacked the last decade of life at Stark Industries for Tony. He pulled up his tablet and showed some of Pepper’s files ( _“Holy fuck, Rhodey, she did all of this?”_ ), then a few rough drafts of Laura’s piece that she had sent to Rhodey for approval, and then he finally handed Tony a sealed legal-sized envelope. 

“What’s this?” Tony asked. 

“There’s a flash drive in there that’s the digitized versions of letters that Pep and I have been writing you since you left. Her idea and she wrote to you way more than I did, but I managed some. There’s also a few hand-written ones from Jarvis, that he left me when he died, hoping I could get them to you someday,” Rhodey smiled sadly. “I’m running out of steam here, buddy, so I’m going to get going. I got a room down at the hotel for two nights. If you want a ride back to the States, I’ve got one for you and all you have to do is meet me there before I go. I won’t ask any questions, just show up.

“If I leave without you, I’ll assume that you’re truly done. My hope is that when you told Pep you didn’t know how to be Tony Stark anymore, it was your martyr complex talking. What’s in that envelope should be enough to tell that voice to shut up, but if it’s not, I can’t do anything else.”

Rhodey stood and nodded at Tony. “Can I -” he paused and swallowed. “Can I get a hug before I go?”

Tony felt as though he had been kicked in the gut, the longing to be hugged was so strong. He nearly leapt at Rhodey and pulled him into his arms, fighting back tears. They stood in an embrace for several moments before Rhodey pulled away and walked out the door. 

“Thank God Pep didn’t ask for that,” Tony addressed the silence. “I would have never let her go.”

___________________

_My Dearest Anthony -_

_My Ana is gone and I’m not equipped to live in this world without her, so I will be saying goodbye to Pepper soon. However, first I need to say goodbye to you._

_I do not know where you’ve been these last years, but I know she is looking for you and if I have learned anything about the future Mrs. Stark, I have learned that she loves you beyond logic, beyond boundaries, and beyond the limits of human knowledge. If you are to be found, she will do it. She will bring you home where you belong, and she will never expect you to thank her for it._

_I certainly will, though. I expect you to thank her and love her and cherish her all of the days of your life._

_I have loved you from the moment your mother placed you in my arms decades ago. I have been proud of you - so proud - at every turn. My only regret is that I could not protect you more than I did. You never deserved how Howard chose to treat you - no one does - and I wish I could have done more._

_Remember who you are, Anthony Edward. You are a genius with the ability to create reality with your hands. You are a kind friend, who always looks out for people who need family. You are a dependable helper, who never was afraid to get your hands dirty to make either my job or Ana’s easier. You are a good man who many of us are proud to know and who we have missed you fiercely. Remember who you are, my Anthony, and come home._

_Until we meet again,_

_Jarvis_

Bucky raised his head to look at ~~Ant~~ , _Tony_ , who was pacing his living room. 

“I can’t go back,” Tony said. “I can’t, I missed too much.”

“What’s on the laptop?” 

“What?”

Bucky gestured to Tony’s open laptop. “You keep looking at it and scrolling. You monitoring SI’s stocks or something? Because I called my broker this morning and he said it’s a pretty shitty investment.”

“You have a broker?” Tony blinked at Bucky.

“I am an adult with a Marine pension, a good job, and no kids. Yes, I have a broker, Jesus,” Bucky swore. “Answer my question.”

“She, uh,” Tony swallowed. “She’s been writing me nearly every day, and Rhodey did a lot, too, and this is all the letters. From all ten years. All of them.” 

Bucky blinked. “Holy shit, pal.”

“I did it, too,” Tony’s voice was barely above a whisper as he continued to pace. “I’ve been writing her, too. I told her all about all of you guys, all about the shop, and Mrs. McIlleery trying to set me up with all seven of her daughters, and the time you and I went to Prague and got so lost, and even before all of you, I told her all that, too, and I can’t believe she did the same, and I can’t - but I can’t go back.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not Tony!” Tony exploded. “Do you have any idea how much technology has evolved in the last decade? Not to mention its uses in business. Plus, I don’t know anything about building weapons and that’s what we do now, and I never ran a business, and don’t tell me helping Steve at the shop counts, because that’s, what a hundred thousand pounds a year? This is 80 billion in assets, and I can’t. I got rid of that part of my brain, I can’t.”

“Of course you can,” Bucky replied, not moving from his seat. His stillness only served to make Tony more agitated. 

“No, James, I can’t,” Tony spat. 

“No, Anthony,” Bucky emphasized, “you can, you just don’t want to.”

“Fuck you.”

“No,” Bucky shook his head. “I had a really great night of watching Netflix and crocheting that blanket for the Miller baby all lined up and you dragged me across the bay, so imma say my piece and then you owe me food.”

Bucky stood up and cracked his knuckles and got slowly into Tony’s personal space. 

“You, pal, are a genius, so I don’t want to hear any of this ‘you don’t know how’ bullshit. You taught yourself Mandarin last summer because you were bored and yes I know about that and a lot more. So the tech’s evolved - you’ll learn it. So you don’t know weapons - you’re friends with three Marines who used to use Stark tech all the time and we’d be happy to help you figure out how to make shit that's both powerful and helpful.

“Regarding this Pepper matter - you are telling me that the two of you have been separated from each other for a decade and your instinct - both of you - was to write each other letters? That’s some _Notebook_ level bullshit right there, pal, so I’d say you found yourself that end of the line kind of love and if you throw that away because you’re a coward, then I rescind my standing ovation to fuck you because I don’t fool around with idiots.”

“Are you done,” Tony sneered. 

“For now, yes,” Bucky said. “Oh wait, one more thing: Pepper said that man, that Jarvis, was your father in all the ways that mattered and he told you to go home, he told you that you were worthy of this and you could handle anything, and if ½ of what you say about that Obie asshat is true, I’d bet good money on the fact that he actually sabotaged the car.”

“He did,” Tony whispered. “Pep found proof.”

“See? Told ya. Now, Butterfingers,” Bucky called, “whuddya got to eat here?” He patted Tony on the shoulder and strode out of the room. 

Tony stared after him for a few moments until his eyes wandered and fell on the document open on his computer screen. 

It was a letter Pepper had written back in 2003, telling him some story about a picnic she’d gone on, but the paragraph that caught him was her final one before her signature. 

_I was talking to Ana on the phone last night, she has trouble hearing, but we just go slow, and I asked her what made her know she was in love with Jarvis. You see, I’ve been a bit worried - I’ve loved you for my whole life. I don’t remember a time that I didn’t love you, so sometimes I worry that we love each other because we were all we had. That’s not love, right? But she told me I was wrong - that you and I love each other because we always choose each other. When given other options, we choose each other. Even when I was with Richie, I couldn’t fathom not also loving you, and when you gave me permission to dream bigger for us, well, I’ve never stopped._

_So, wherever you are in the world right now, Anthony Edward, know that I still choose you. I choose you over everyone else, over other adventures, over other dreams, over everything. I choose you and I am asking the universe with every breath for you to choose me back._

_Xx  
Pep_

He wiped the tears from his eyes that he hadn’t even known had gathered and sat back on the couch. 

Jarvis had told him once that everything in life was simple - it probably wasn’t easy, but it was simple. Decide what to be and go be it, that was Jarvis’ idea of a life plan, and if the man was here, Tony knew just what he’d ask. 

_The only question that matters right now, Master Anthony, is if you love Virginia. If you love her, then go home. If you don’t, then let her go._

Tony flexed his fingers and started to laugh. When put like that, it really was the simplest answer he’d given in years. 

“Hey Buck,” Tony called. “Lock up behind you, I’m heading down to the hotel.”

______________

Rhodey opened his hotel door to find Tony standing there with a backpack in hand.

“So, do we have time for me to get back there before this Laura chick blows up my company?”

Rhodey’s face split into a grin. 

“I believe that can be arranged.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) or [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/) to yell at me to write faster. It usually works.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This goes out to Tumblr user unohuim13, who I think is the only human reading this thing and has been _so, so_ patient with my incompetent muse.

Pepper read the text from Rhodey for the nineteenth time that morning.

_Rhodey: I told Laura to run the story at exactly 10:10am, which means it will hit when the entire board is in the room. Breathe._

Today was it, the day where everything happened even if she didn’t want it to. She’d called Laura as soon as she landed from her trip and told her to get everything ready to release as soon as Laura’s editors were comfortable. After some long conversations, they decided to release everything on the same day as the 4th Quarter SI Board Meeting - so that most, if not all, the board got all the information at once.

Rhodey had been cagey with her since she’d gotten back, but Laura kept assuring Pepper that he was being a huge help to her and so Pepper breathed easier.

But now… now it was time.

She checked her watch as she scuttled around the board room - ensuring that everyone had the beverage of their preference, that the reports were arranged just so, that Obie’s favorite flowers were lining the credenzas.

_Well, Virginia, whatever your life looks like after today, it will probably not include remembering that Obie demands alternating pots of orchids and lilies for every board meeting_ , she smiled to herself.

The door creaked open behind her and she didn’t bother to turn. She knew it would be Ashley, her assistant.

“Did you get a chance to get the fruit tray yet?”

“It’s disgusting how below your pay grade that question is.”

Her footing stumbled and she nearly fell flat on her face as she rushed to turn towards the voice.

Tony stood before her in an overcoat, fedora, and sunglasses - bearing little to no resemblance to the man she’d left in a barn in Northern Ireland.

“What are you doing,” she breathed. “Are you...?”

“This is the only spot in the room that’s not covered by Obie’s security cameras,” he remarked, as though reading her mind. “I needed to see you, quickly, and tell you what’s about to happen. Can you keep preparing for the meeting? We have four minutes before Jamie Winchester is going to show up.”

“You talked to Jamie?” Pepper’s breath released on the name of the last man loyal to the Starks that Obie had ousted. She blinked a few times and then resumed her futzing.

“I read some really interesting data the week after you left,” Tony said, his eyes not leaving hers while not directly answering her question. “Rhodey delivered it, and Laura’s been kind enough to verify it, and the Department of Labor was particularly helpful in clarifying some issues around exactly how Howard structured the board and how Obie hasn’t really been paying attention to some of the finer details.”

“Rhodey delivered it,” she repeated, rearranging a few of the orchids.

“I got a flash drive full of journals as well,” Tony said, his voice quieter than before. “But we can talk about that after we decimate this motherfucker. The piece goes live at 10:10. I’ll be in this room as soon as it does. I need you to do two things for me, Virginia, can I ask them?”

Pepper fought to not look towards him. “Yes.”

“I need you to have printed hard copies of the article - Laura’s sending them to your secure email right now - so that we can pass them out to anyone who doesn’t have their phone on them. And, I need to know if I’ve broken this so badly I can’t put it back together, because part of my plan today is to announce our engagement and subsequent takeover of SI.”

“Our?”

“I’ve rewritten some things. It’s been a big week,” she caught his smirk out of the corner of her eye. “But I can walk that all back if you want to pause and do all that later.”

She flashed her eyes to him quickly, afraid to even nod her head. “No, we can privately rebuild while publicly united. And you didn’t break us, he tried, but he couldn’t even do that right, so let’s destroy him.”

“What are you doing tonight?”

_I’m going to need to get used to the non-sequiturs again_. “Well, I was going to wash my hair, but since I have a fiancé back from the dead, I think I can be flexible.”

An alarm sounded from Tony’s phone before he could respond and she stole a quick glance to him. “I love you. I should have led with that, Virginia. I love you, I’m sorry, I missed you, I love you.”

“Pepper,” she corrected, and bit her lip. “If you’re Tony Stark, then I’m Pepper Potts.”

“Well, then, Ms. Potts, it’s showtime.”

* * *

For the rest of her natural life, Pepper would never forget the look on Obie’s face when Tony walked in at precisely 10:12am. Nor would she forget the feel of Tony’s eyes on hers when he announced their engagement, or the slide of his hand into hers after it was all over and they were calmly watching a very stoic SEC agent by the name of Phillip Coulson arrest Obie on fourteen counts of profiteering, money laundering, and a few other things she had lost track of. The FBI was investigating Obie for attempted manslaughter as well, but those charges required Tony’s testimony and would come later.

She’d assumed Tony would be showy and dramatic, ever the ringmaster of his particular circus, but instead… Instead, he’d simply walked into the meeting and taken a seat at the table.

_“Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting?”_

_Obie’s brain was clearly short circuiting, but he managed to respond. “Tony, my boy, is that really you? What are you doing here?”_

_“Well,” Tony adjusted his cuff links and stared Obie down, “it appears that for a publicly traded company, we’ve been keeping a few too many private secrets, even from our board.” He directed his attention around the table. “I don’t know many of you- except Jamie, hi there - so you may not know who I am. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Anthony Edward Stark, son of Howard and Maria, proud fiance to Pepper, and rightful CEO and heir to this empire. I’ve been away for a few years because my dear, trusted adviser, Obadiah Stane, led me to believe that I had murdered my parents.”_

_There was a gasp and Tony smirked. “Don’t worry folks, all a lie. Pepper, if you will?”_

_She passed out the packets she’d prepared and took great joy in watching every ounce of color drain out of Obie’s face. As Tony walked them all through the article and attachments in their hands, with Obie fruitlessly interrupting, Pepper quietly pulled out her phone and hit ‘record’. Something told her that Bucky would want to see this._

After Obie’s arrest, things were swift. She and Tony were led to an office with most of the SI legal department and a few federal agents who walked the couple through all it would entail to untangle the mess Obie had created. The R&D department would have to be cleared out even further than it already was - there were a few arrests regarding defrauding the public that morning - and most of the senior leadership team would be given their termination notices as well.

_So many details, so many things to be fixed, so much to rebuild…_ Pepper would feel her breath catch and then remind herself to focus on Tony. He was back. They also had details to work out, things to fix, and a life to rebuild, but…

He was back. He chose her. He chose himself. He chose them.

They could figure it out from there.

* * *

_WhatsApp Chat: A &B_

_Bucky: Am I supposed to call you Mr. Stark now?_

_Ant: Not unless Pep got a lot kinkier in the last few years and we go open._

_Ant: Ant is still fine._

_Ant: No one else here knows it._

_Bucky: Pep sent me a video of your takedown of Baldie the Bad Guy._

_Ant: She’s Pep now? Exactly how often do you two talk?_

_Bucky: She air-dropped me fancy American toilet paper, like, two days after she left. You’re lucky i don’t swing her way or ida stollen her._

_Ant: Mouthy dudes with brown hair have always been her type._

_Bucky: Pal, you’re her type. Don’t fuck it up._

_Ant: I don’t know what I’m doing._

_Bucky: Spoiler alert, you didn’t when you were here either. But she does. Trust her._

* * *

> STARK INDUSTRIES PRESS STATEMENT  
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
> MAY 2012
> 
> Stark Industries is pleased to announce that Virginia Stark will be stepping into the role of CEO effective September 1. Anthony Stark will remain President of the company, but his day-to-day operational role will revolve around running the Research & Development arm of the company.
> 
> Since shuttering the weapons division in 2011, SI has enjoyed a 14% stock price jump as Mr. Stark leads the company into a new era of robotic innovation. He has -

Bucky looked up from his tablet and across the Irish Sea towards the mainland. Picking up his phone, he sent a quick text to one of his favorite group chats.

_WhatsApp: StarksIrishFamily_

_Bucky: So, I see the Queen has taken her rightful place._

_Ant: And not a moment too soon, I can’t give any fucks about the board any more._

_Nat: Poor suffering multi-billionaire._

_Ant: It’s very hard being me._

_Steve: Pep, how are you feeling?_

_Pepper: She’s doing the tarantella on my bladder all the time, but she’s still less dramatic than Tony._

_Bucky: So if you’re the queen of Starklandia, what does that make Tony, besides your humble servant?_

_Ant: I demand to be called King of the Robots._

_Nat: For fuckssake._

_Pepper: No._

_Bucky: Absolutely not._

_Steve: Well, we’ll need someone to blame when Skynet becomes sentient._

_Bucky: Good point. We can blame Ant!_

_Ant: WE WILL NOT BLAME ANT BECAUSE MY TECH IS PERFECT._

_Pepper: Sure it is, baby. Sure it is._

_Ant: You’re patronizing me._

_Pepper: Absolutely._

_Pepper: Everyone, the doctor says Laura will make her grand appearance on the 15th. Can we send the jet for you around the 18th?_

_Steve: We’ve hired and trained all the temps, Buck’s even hired three new mechanics. We’re ready to come and be helpful as long as you need us._

_Bucky: Let’s not get carried away, here, Stevie. We’re ready to help as long as Pepper needs us. Ant will never stop needing us._

_Ant: I hate you all._

_Bucky: Love you too, King Roboto. Now, go take care of your wife and daughter. We’ll see you soon._

* * *

“I don’t think Laura thought we were serious,” Pepper whispered to Tony over the sleeping newborn’s head.

“Is she kidding? Besides, Laura Maria Stark sounds appropriately Italian that my mother’s ghost won’t haunt us.”

Pepper snorted and kissed Laura’s head. “I still can’t believe she’s real.”

“I still can’t believe a lot of things,” Tony said quietly.

The last several years had not been easy. They each read the journals they kept and spent hours, if not days, asking questions. They hired therapists who could help them each individually and collectively. They worked with turnaround experts as they set SI to rights and spent a lot of time on planes criss-crossing the Atlantic as Tony continued to crave time with Bucky, Nat, and Steve.

But now? Now they were okay. Settled.

_Parents_.

They’d go on to add three more children to their brood; Steven James, Anabeth Natalia, and Edwin Marcus. Pepper would take SI from near bankruptcy to being the top tech company in the world, with the most aggressive employment equity policies imaginable - and would always get a little nervous when Tony was gone on long trips that this was the time he wasn’t coming home. Tony would revolutionize robotics - and would never really learn how to sleep.

Their eldest, Laura, would take over SI, with her wife Meghan, while Steve, Ana, and Eddie would all pursue their own dreams. Grandchildren and grandpuppies would populate Pepper and Tony’s lives long after SI ceased to become part of the day-to-day. Tony officiated Bucky’s wedding to a handsome fella named Sam, and both served as godparents when the pair adopted a few years later.

By the time Virginia Potts Stark breathed her last, she had loved Anthony Edward Stark for 95 years, four months, and three days. By the time he breathed his last, he had loved Virginia for 95 years, four months, and four days. After their years apart, he had sworn to never leave her again, and he kept his promise, even then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Stony](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or [Stuckony](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) servers. 
> 
> I have a few other Pepperony fics in the pipeline, but I'll admit that they're faaaar down the list. Next Pepper-centric fic will be a Pepperstony Political AU, and then a Pepper/Bucky spin-off from the Rose Garden AU. I love her, I promise. She's just too much fun to write as a completely BAMF Best Friend sometimes.


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